All about coffee by William H. Ukers
CHAPTER XXXI
803 words | Chapter 161
SOME BIG MEN AND NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
_B.G. Arnold, the first, and Hermann Sielcken, the last of the
American "coffee kings"--John Arbuckle, the original package-coffee
man--Jabez Burns, the man who revolutionized the roasted coffee
business by his contributions as inventor, manufacturer, and
writer--Coffee-trade booms and panics--Brazil's first valorization
enterprise--War-time government control of coffee--The story of
soluble coffee_
In the history of the coffee trade of the United States, several names
stand out because of sensational accomplishments, and because of notable
contributions made to the development of the industry. In green coffee,
we have B.G. Arnold, the first, and Hermann Sielcken the last, of the
"coffee kings"; in the roasting business, there was John Arbuckle, the
original national-package-coffee man; and in the coffee-roasting
machinery business, Jabez Burns, inventor, manufacturer, and writer.
_The First "Coffee King"_
Benjamin Green Arnold came to New York from Rhode Island in 1836 and
took a job as accountant with an east-side grocer. He was thrifty,
industrious, and kept his own counsel. He was a born financial leader.
Fifteen years later he was made a junior partner in the firm. By 1868,
the bookkeeper of 1836 was the head of the business, with a line of
credit amounting to half a million dollars--a notable achievement in
those days.
Mr. Arnold embarked upon his big speculation in coffee in 1869. For ten
years he maintained his mastery of the market, and in that time amassed
a fortune. It is related that one year's operations of this daring
trader yielded his firm a profit of a million and a quarter of dollars.
[Illustration: BENJAMIN GREEN ARNOLD]
B.G. Arnold was the first president of the New York Coffee Exchange. He
was one of the founders of the Down Town Association in 1878. The
president of the United States was his friend, and a guest at his
luxurious home. But the high-price levels to which Arnold had forced the
coffee market started a coffee-planting fever in the countries of
production. Almost before he knew it, there was an overproduction that
swamped the market and forced down prices with so amazing rapidity that
panic seized upon the traders. Few that were caught in that memorable
coffee maelstrom survived financially.
Arnold himself was a victim, but such was the man's character that his
failure was regarded by many as a public misfortune. Some men differed
with him as to the wisdom of promoting a coffee corner, and protested
that it was against public policy; but Arnold's personal integrity was
never questioned, and his mercantile ability and honorable business
dealings won for him an affectionate regard that continued after his
fortune had been swept away.
After the collapse of the coffee corner, Mr. Arnold resumed business
with his son, F.B. Arnold. He died in New York, December 10, 1894, in
his eighty-second year. The son died in Rome in 1906. The business which
the father founded, however, continues today as Arnold, Dorr & Co., one
of the most honored and respected names in Front Street.
_Hermann Sielcken, the Last Coffee King_
If B.G. Arnold was first coffee king, Hermann Sielcken was last, for it
is unlikely that ever again, in the United States, will it be possible
for one man to achieve so absolute a dictatorship of the green coffee
business.
There never was a coffee romance like that of Hermann Sielcken's. Coming
to America a poor boy in 1869, forty-five years later, he left it many
times a millionaire. For a time, he ruled the coffee markets of the
world with a kind of autocracy such as the trade had never seen before
and probably will not see again. And when, just before the outbreak of
the World War, he returned to Germany for the annual visit to his
Baden-Baden estate, from which he was destined never again to sally
forth to deeds of financial prowess, his subsequent involuntary
retirement found him a huge commercial success, where B.G. Arnold was a
colossal failure. It was the World War and a lingering illness that, at
the end, stopped Hermann Sielcken. But, though he had to admit himself
bested by the fortunes of war, he was still undefeated in the world of
commerce. He died in his native Germany in 1917, the most commanding,
and the most cordially disliked, figure ever produced by the coffee
trade.
Hermann Sielcken was born in Hamburg in 1847, and so was seventy years
old when he died at Baden-Baden, October 8, 1917. He was the son of a
small baker in Hamburg; and before he was twenty-one, he went to Costa
Rica to work for a German firm there. He did not like Costa Rica, and
within a year he went to San Francisco, where, with a knowledge of
English already acquired, he got a job as a shipping clerk. This was in
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