Speaker 00:00

Section 4. You will hear part of a presentation by a history student about the history of coffee. First,
you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40. Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.
In my presentation, I'm going to talk about coffee and its importance both in economic and social
terms.

Speaker 01:20

We think it was first drunk in the Arab world, but there's hardly any documentary evidence of it
before the 1500s, although of course that doesn't mean that people didn't know about it before then.
However, there is evidence that coffee was originally gathered from bushes growing wild in Ethiopia,
in the northeast of Africa.

Speaker 01:44

In the early 16th century, it was being bought by traders, and gradually its use as a drink spread
throughout the Middle East. It's also known that in 1522, in the Turkish city of Constantinople, which
was the centre of the Ottoman Empire, the court physician approved its use as a medicine. By the
mid-1500s, coffee bushes were being cultivated in the Yemen,

Speaker 02:14

And for the next hundred years, this region produced most of the coffee drunk in Africa and the Arab
world. What's particularly interesting about coffee is its effect on social life. It was rarely drunk at
home, but instead people went to coffee houses to drink it. These people, usually men, would meet
to drink coffee and chat about issues of the day.

Speaker 02:41

But at the time, this chance to share ideas and opinions was seen as something that was potentially
dangerous. And in 1623, the ruler of Constantinople demanded the destruction of all the coffee
houses in the city, although after his death, many new ones opened and coffee consumption
continued.

Speaker 03:06

In the 17th century, coffee drinking spread to Europe. And here too, coffee shops became places
where ordinary people, nearly always men, could meet to exchange ideas. Because of this, some
people said that these places performed a similar function to universities.

Speaker 03:26

The opportunity they provided for people to meet together outside their own homes and to discuss
the topics of the day had an enormous impact on social life, and many social movements and
political developments had their origins in coffeehouse discussions.

Speaker 03:49

In the late 1600s, the Yemeni monopoly on coffee production broke down, and coffee production
started to spread around the world, helped by European colonisation. Europeans set up coffee
plantations in Indonesia and the Caribbean, and production of coffee in the colonies skyrocketed.
Different types of coffee were produced in different areas, and

Speaker 04:15
And it's interesting that the names given to these different types, like mocha or java coffee, were
often taken from the port they were shipped to Europe from. But if you look at the labour system in
the different colonies, there were some significant differences. In Brazil and the various Caribbean
colonies, coffee was grown in huge plantations, and the workers there were almost all slaves. But this
wasn't the same in all colonies.

Speaker 04:46

For example, in Java, which had been colonised by the Dutch, the peasants grew coffee and passed a
proportion of this on to the Dutch, so it was used as a means of taxation. But whatever system was
used, under the European powers of the 18th century, coffee production was very closely linked to
colonisation. Coffee was grown in ever-increasing quantities to satisfy the growing demand from
Europe,

Speaker 05:16

and it became nearly as important as sugar production, which was grown under very similar
conditions. However, coffee prices were not yet low enough for people to drink it regularly at home,
so most coffee consumption still took place in public coffee houses, and it still remained something
of a luxury item.

Speaker 05:37

In Britain, however, a new drink was introduced from China and started to become popular, gradually
taking over from coffee, although at first it was so expensive that only the upper classes could afford
it. This was tea, and by the late 1700s it was being widely drunk. However, when the USA gained
independence from Britain in 1776, they identified this drink with Britain.

Speaker 06:06

and coffee remained the preferred drink in the USA, as it still is today. So, by the early 19th century,
coffee was already being widely produced and consumed. But during this century, production
boomed and coffee prices started to fall. This was partly because new types of transportation had
been developed, which were cheaper and more efficient.

Speaker 06:32

So now, working people could afford to buy coffee. It wasn't just a drink for the middle classes. And
this was at a time when large parts of Europe were starting to work in industries. And sometimes this
meant their work didn't stop when it got dark. They might have to continue throughout the night. So
the use of coffee as a stimulant became important. It wasn't just a drink people drank in the morning
for breakfast. There were also changes in cultivation.

Speaker 07:04

That is the end of section 4. You now have half a minute to check your answers. That is the end of the
listening test. In the IELTS test, you would now have 10 minutes to transfer your answers to the
answer sheet.