Part Four. Economics, Education, and Crime. Chapters 17-21.Chapter 17 (Richter and Ta) considers reports of cacao and chocolate in 18th and early 19th century Shipping News documents. Their analysis reveals how cacao and chocolate were transported from points of debarkation in South and Central America and the Caribbean to primary ports along the eastern seaboard of North America, especially Baltimore, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Chapter 18 (Richter and Ta) presents an economic analysis of 18th and early 19th century Price Current documents that established prices for cacao and chocolate in the major European and North American east coast cities. They report how the prices for these commodities fluctuated during periods of peace vs. hostilities and by transportation distance. Chapter 19 (Grivetti) summarizes information from 18th century almanacs, religious tracts, and primary school textbooks that included cacao-and chocolate-related homespun medical advice, recommendations for mental and personal improvement, morality tales, and spiritual instruction. Chapter 20 (Grivetti) analyzes a suite of English documents where defendants were tried for cacao-and chocolate-associated crimes that ranged from assault, to grand theft, to murder, and reviews the verdicts for relative fairness/consistency or lack thereof. Chapter 21 (Grivetti) continues the "dark side" theme of chocolate and presents selected criminal cases that involved cacao/chocolate-associated arson, blackmail, counterfeiting, murder, smuggling, and theft. |
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