Encyclopédie

This monopoly was strictly upheld, and as long as Mexico remained a Spanish colony, cochineal could be obtained through Spain and Spain alone.

That the industry was no mean one may be gathered from a statement in d'Alembert and Diderot's Encyclopedia, in which they say that eight hundred thousand pounds of cochineal of the value of fifteen million five hundred thousand six hundred and ninety francs reached Europe in seventeen thirty-four, and in seventeen sixty the insect to the value of four million francs reached Marseilles alone, and de Humboldt relates that at the time of his voyage to America the annual export of this commodity exceeded twelve million francs.

De Roucher gives some interesting details of the cultivation of cochineal by the Mexicans at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

During the winter the insects were kept indoors as a protection from inclement weather.

To hell with the churches and private salons.

In France, they become part of the atmosphere of the Enlightenment, the world of Voltaire, Diderot, and the Encyclopédie.

Coffee doesn't create the Enlightenment, obviously, but it gives it a room, a sober, restless, talkative room where the information moves faster than it used to and where the modern public starts to recognize itself.

At this point in the history of coffee, everything seems to be working.