Coffee spreads worldwide

By 17th century, Dutch people started growing coffee in their colonies and Ámsterdam soon became the coffee trading centre, which was coming from Java and the Dutch East India.

Coffee became a valuable gift for royal families. In 1714, the Mayor of Amsterdam presented a gift of a young coffee plant to King Louis XIV of France. The King ordered it to be planted in the Royal Botanical Garden in Paris. In 1723, a young naval officer, Gabriel de Clieu obtained a seedling from the King's plant. Despite an arduous voyage -- complete with horrendous weather, a saboteur who tried to destroy the seedling and a pirate attack -- he managed to transport it safely to Martinique.� Once planted, the seedling thrived and is credited with the spread of over 18 million coffee trees on the island of Martinique in the next 50 years. It was also the stock from which coffee trees throughout the Caribbean, South and Central America originated.

Coffee soon became the largest export products in the tropical and subtropical areas.