Sugar and Coffee — Fueled Growth
We evolved to desire sugar because it was a good source of energy, and relatively scarce. But when we learned to mass produce it, our love for it suddenly went from asset to liability. The same is now true for information. Our curiosity, which once focused us, now distracts us. I don’t know why I started off with this paragraph, the tone is not relevant with the remaining content of this blog.
Isn’t it interesting how a new discovery or change leads to all this really good progress. Then suddenly, it comes down. Everything is about balance. Too much (and sometimes too little) of anything can kill you. I’m a big believer in productivity. I think it is the bedrock of all economies. The one thing you have to get right is an efficient productivity state to make anything sustain for decades, even centuries to come.
Many of our great ideas can come from a few drinks of alcohol or a big coffee in the AM. Of course, Ernest Hemingway was long quoted saying “Write drunk, edit sober” (later it was confirmed he didn't say this. Regardless, great quote). Economic thinkers typically view mood altering substances as a drag on prosperity. However, stimulants can play a positive role.
For example: Sugar and coffee. Sugar enabled people to work harder (more energy) and coffee allowed people to work smarter.
For quite a long time, calories were a significant constraint on Western economic growth. In 1700, the total food supply per person in Britain was equivalent to around 2000 calories a day. Which was enough for the average person to survive, but not really do much more. If you were poor in these times, you barely had enough energy to move, let alone work.
This all change once Britain began greatly increasing their sugar imports. Annual consumption per person of sugar increased dramatically in the 1800s. Britains productivity and therefore economy, was growing faster given more people were able to work due to this new sugar high. British GDP growth was 7 times as fast as France’s. This happened because sugar made it possible to bring the ultra poor into the labor force by supplementing them with needed calories and energy.
Coffee began to pop up in England due to progression in trade (just like sugar). Coffee pushed the middle classes to do bigger and better things in the economy. Coffee played a key role in the culture of growth. Even in Europe’s industrialization period, science became less academic, and more focused on solving real world problems. Many inventions were birthed that contributed to the economic engine and boosting productivity. Coffee houses played a crucial role. In fact, they took on a name of “penny universities.”
By early 18th Century, London had as many as 600 coffee shops. People would gather there to exchange ideas. Caffeine fueled the discussion in way alcohol never could. This is the cornerstone of all development. People gathering together facilitates a rapid velocity in information, creating a quicker conclusion to ideas. Its the same in colleges, or big companies (water cooler talk), etc. People putting heads together. Coffee created better attention and curating of good ideas.
This was not the only way in which coffee boosted growth. In the 18th century Europe came to rely more heavily on clocks to organize the timing of economic activity, and less on the natural rhythms of the human body, as was common in agricultural societies. Factories cannot function unless everyone is there at the same time. Yet if people now had to get up at unnatural hours, they needed something to pep them up.
In more modern times we witnessed the same desire for sugar and coffee within the police force. With the advent of cars and donut shops popping up, cops would post up to get their dose of sugar and coffee to help pull down a shift
