La Roque's description of his visit to the king's gardens is interesting
because it shows the Arabs still held to the belief that coffee grew
only in Arabia. Here it is:
There was nothing remarkable in the King's Gardens, except the
great pains taken to furnish it with all the kinds of trees that
are common in the country; amongst which there were the coffee
trees, the finest that could be had. When the deputies represented
to the King how much that was contrary to the custom of the Princes
of Europe (who endeavor to stock their gardens chiefly with the
rarest and most uncommon plants that can be found) the King
returned them this answer: That he valued himself as much upon his
good taste and generosity as any Prince in Europe; the coffee tree,
he told them, was indeed common in his country, but it was not the
less dear to him upon that account; the perpetual verdure of it
pleased him extremely; and also the thoughts of its producing a
fruit which was nowhere else to be met with; and when he made a
present of that that came from his own Gardens, it was a great
satisfaction to him to be able to say that he had planted the trees
that produced it with his own hands.
The first merchant licensed to sell coffee in France was one Damame
François, a bourgeois of Paris, who secured the privilege through an
edict of 1692. He was given the sole right for ten years to sell coffees
and teas in all the provinces and towns of the kingdom, and in all
territories under the sovereignty of the king, and received also
authority to maintain a warehouse.
To Santo Domingo (1738) and other French colonies the café was soon
transported from the homeland, and thrived under special license from
the king.
In 1858 there appeared in France a leaflet-periodical, entitled _The
Café, Literary, Artistic, and Commercial_. Ch. Woinez, the editor, said
in announcing it: "The Salon stood for privilege, the Café stands for
equality." Its publication was of short duration.
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