The spread of coffee from its humble beginnings in Yemen to its trade in the rest of Europe is curious. Trade, competition, and the desire for the energetic properties of coffee all fueled the spread of coffee, but what are the most important factors that influenced coffees’ spread to the rest of the world, and ultimately led it to become a global beverage? It was the open, traveling nature of Sufi sects that encouraged the spread of coffee outside of the Sufi dhikr worship meeting and into the Middle East, and the acceptance and legalization of slavery in the Caribbean which ensured proper production of coffee that resulted in coffee becoming a major global commodity. The open, less reclusive personality of Sufi sects allowed for the spread
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Although the way Sufis spread coffee is not clearly documented, Hattox makes his own hypothesis about how Sufis spread coffee to the rest of the Middle East. Sufi Muslims weren’t reclusive like Catholic monks, who hardly leave their monastery. Rather, the Sufis had families and occupations apart from their Sufi lives. Because of this, Hattox believes that after regularly consuming coffee during the Sufi dhikr, which were late night Sufi meetings, Sufis went home to their families and introduced coffee as a new pleasure …show more content…
Specifically, in Saint Domingue, which is Haiti today, many lower class citizens such as free blacks and immigrants took advantage of the coffee market and began to own and manage their own coffee plantations (Trouillot, 128). These very destitute plantation owners with poor “economic positions,” wouldn’t have been able to afford paying laborers for their work on their coffee plantations. (Trouillot, 127). Coffee plantation owners relied immensely on slavery, because without slavery the cost of production may have been higher than product sales. Additionally, because of the cost of production for coffee, it is extremely likely that no one would have managed coffee plantations. Not only would coffee plantations be difficult for free blacks and immigrants to afford to run, but those that might be able to afford them may have little incentive to own a coffee plantation. Rich plantation owners that could afford managing a coffee plantation without slavery would have more likely owned a sugar plantation. This is because sugar was more valuable as an export as opposed to coffee, which was a secondary crop to sugar (Trouillot 124). If slavery wasn’t accepted in the Caribbean during the time period coffee just started to become popular, it’s possible that because no
Although the way Sufis spread coffee is not clearly documented, Hattox makes his own hypothesis about how Sufis spread coffee to the rest of the Middle East. Sufi Muslims weren’t reclusive like Catholic monks, who hardly leave their monastery. Rather, the Sufis had families and occupations apart from their Sufi lives. Because of this, Hattox believes that after regularly consuming coffee during the Sufi dhikr, which were late night Sufi meetings, Sufis went home to their families and introduced coffee as a new pleasure …show more content…
Specifically, in Saint Domingue, which is Haiti today, many lower class citizens such as free blacks and immigrants took advantage of the coffee market and began to own and manage their own coffee plantations (Trouillot, 128). These very destitute plantation owners with poor “economic positions,” wouldn’t have been able to afford paying laborers for their work on their coffee plantations. (Trouillot, 127). Coffee plantation owners relied immensely on slavery, because without slavery the cost of production may have been higher than product sales. Additionally, because of the cost of production for coffee, it is extremely likely that no one would have managed coffee plantations. Not only would coffee plantations be difficult for free blacks and immigrants to afford to run, but those that might be able to afford them may have little incentive to own a coffee plantation. Rich plantation owners that could afford managing a coffee plantation without slavery would have more likely owned a sugar plantation. This is because sugar was more valuable as an export as opposed to coffee, which was a secondary crop to sugar (Trouillot 124). If slavery wasn’t accepted in the Caribbean during the time period coffee just started to become popular, it’s possible that because no