When you want to share some exciting news with your friends, inspire new ideas, or get advice, you are likely to go to a coffee shop. It has been that way for centuries. Coffee shops had been places of learning; making business; as well as scientific, literary, political, philosophical, and economic debates; and of course, the typical gossiping here and there.
The Early History of Coffee Houses
Coffee was grown in Africa as early as the 9th century, but it didn't arrive to Europe until the 17th century. However, when it did, it was received with varying opinions. It still became popular, even with the people that detested its very existence.
The 18th century London coffee house was the center of much controversy, even to the point of the king trying to ban coffee from all over London and close these firsts establishments. For being the place for political discussion, some of the primal policies of our newly formed country might have been born in one of these places.
Coffee didn't come from a direct route from Africa, but slowly found its way to Britain through Mediterranean commercial routes with the Muslim world. Queen Elizabeth I, instigated her European neighbor’s wrath by opening up diplomatic relations with her newly discovered Moroccan and Ottoman friends, making up good trading relations and sea-faring agreements.
This trade allowed goods such as tea from Asia, coffee, and chocolate to enter England. The Middle East had coffee houses over a century before they appeared in England.
In 1652 Pasqua Rosee, a commoner, servant of a merchant trader and an immigrant from Ottoman Smyrna, opened the very first coffee-house in London, which later became known as "The Turks Head." Rosee’s coffee-house was located in St. Michael’s Alley, Cornhill, his first clientele were sailors of the Levant Company, the trading house that organized and regulated trade with the Ottoman Empire.
In 1662, the "Great Turk Coffee House" opened. According to popular belief, inside could be found a bust of Sultan Almurath IV himself, the most despicable tyrant that ever ruled the Ottoman Empire. The customer could purchase not just coffee, tea, and tobacco, but also chocolate. Some people even began to wear turbans in the coffee houses.
Possibly because of the Islamic culture, coffee-houses were perceived as a place for renegades of Christianity. The new interest in other cultures (and religions) continued past the fascination of the Middle East all of the ways to the "exotic" Orient.
Coffee-houses became popular very quickly, by 1663 there were around 83 coffee-houses in London. By the beginning of the XVIII century, there were as many as five or six hundred of them. Some very famous companies started as coffee-houses. An example of this is Lloyds of London, an insurance brokerage company, it began as Edward Lloyd’s coffee-house on Tower Street around 1688.
The coffee-house, which originated in the Middle East around 1511, was just a place to enjoy an exotic drink, but soon evolved into an establishment that helped to change the course of history. Before coffee-houses were built in London, the common gatherings took place at a pub or tavern. The first attraction to coffee might have been its newness or the excitement coming from the caffeine, but soon it became another reason to meet, and the coffee-house became a place for socializing.
FACT: some men spent so much time with their friends there, that their mail was delivered directly to the coffee-house instead of their home.
Another interesting fact is that almost every coffee-house allowed only male patrons (or clients), while women were relegated to the home or elsewhere for coffee. Not letting women into these coffee houses started a few problems, which were remarked in the "Women’s Petition Against Coffee" published in 1674. Which was just a mock petition, but rumors and claims against coffee drinking could have been taken seriously at the time, whether or not they were true.
Soon there was noticed a distinct difference between the pub and the coffee-house, rumors of the health benefits of coffee were in abundance, and most importantly, coffee-houses encouraged sobriety, rational thought, and a clear political discussion, whereas taverns merely provided a haven for excess and intoxication.
This wasn’t a place to escape the world and numb the senses, but rather a place to inform and debate current events and to create new ideas for how life should be. Until this time there didn't exist a "forum" of sorts for the merchant or trading class to have said discussions.
Then came the London Stock Exchange, with this atmosphere of bringing buyers and sellers together, setting standard market prices. The insurance mentioned above underwriter, Lloyd’s of London, began in 1688 in a small coffee-house with Lloyd providing a free information service on shipping, published as "Lloyd’s List." It prospered as a place for marine insurance, and as far as politics are concerned, men met in the coffee-house to discuss the latest political topics, even instigating fear in the king himself.
Some of our very own founding fathers may have sat in these early coffee-houses, discussing the future of the colonies or how our government should be, noting the pitfalls or failures of the monarchies of England and France.
Trivia: In 1675 King Charles II of England wrote an edict to have all of the coffee-houses shut down; however, after a long, hard-fought struggle with the owners of the coffee-houses and other businessmen, the proclamation was overturn.
The history of coffee is vast and deep, like a brown, hot, caffeine-filled sea. That Coffee Roasters brings you its past, but also the hot topics of the presents. Follow us on our social networks and write your comments on the section below.
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