CHAPTER X.COCA IN COMMERCE.
The Hon. Richard Gibbs, U.S. minister to Bolivia, for some years resident at La Paz, gives a similar account to that of Weddell of the cultivation of Coca at the present day.[29]He says the consumers of Coca, both in Peru and in Bolivia, are the native races; the whites seldom use it, except as an infusion, and then the first water is thrown away as being too strong. The habitual consumers of it know nothing of toothache, and have their teeth in good condition to a great age. The Peruvian Government, he states, records and taxes a production of over 15,000,000 lbs., and the Bolivian Government about 7,000,000 lbs. annually; of the latter about 55 per cent. is consumed in Bolivia; the ArgentineRepublic and Chili about 15 per cent. each; Peru, 10 per cent.; while about 5 per cent. is exported to Europe and the United States. As “Coca is very easily damaged by the combined effects of heat and moisture, it is, therefore, always stored in dry, cool warehouses, and rarely handled or transported in damp weather or during the rainy season. The rainy season is from January to April, and, therefore, that stored on the west side of the coast range is alone available for export during the rainy season. When exported it is said that it usually starts in very good condition, and will reach its destination in the same condition if carried in a cool, dry place. Such transportation is always stipulated for on bills of lading, but the proper precautions are generally neglected, and hence the worthless condition in which it is often seen.”
Of the Coca imported into London, Liverpool, Havre, and Hamburg, some comes in tin-lined cases containing two tambores, but most of the large leaves (Bolivian variety) still arrive in rough canvas bales, generally lined with waterproof tarpaulin, and weighing from 120 to 150 lbs. each, two of which form a load for a mule for transportation through mountain passes or across the Andes for exportation. The bales usually contain three, or sometimes only two, tightly packed tambores, each weighing about 40 or 45 lbs. These latter have a canvas covering over a banana leaf lining. Other bales contain from six to nine smaller packages of about 16 to 20 lbs. each, wrapped round with a coarse woollen fabric and large dock-like leaves. The small leaves (North Peruvian) are usually either in closely-packed bales, containing 2 or 3 hundredweights, covered with canvas, then with tarpaulin, and again with canvas, or else in looselypacked canvas “beds” about 6 feet square by 1½ to 2 feet thick, containing brick-shaped packages, wrapped in pieces of banana leaf, weighing from 1 to 3 lbs. each, and measuring about 5 inches by 5 inches, and from 12 to 18 inches in length. The larger leaves at times arrive in bales containing similar packages.
Cowley (quoted p. 9) seems to have been gifted with second sight, and referred to the commerce of the present day; until a few years ago it was quite unknown in the London drug market: even yet no reliable statistics of our imports are obtainable.