When the European War broke out stocks of this coffee amounting to three million sacks still lay in the countries suddenly rendered belligerent— it should be mentioned here that coffee improves by careful keeping. The combined stocks in Hamburg, Bremen and Trieste totalling 1,200,000 bags were at once taken over by the Teutonic governments, and the price (about £4,500,000) paid to a Berlin bank; it got no farther because proceeds of the coffee sales being mortgaged to London bankers, transfer would “benefit the enemy.” Germany was in this case only following the same financial rules as other belligerents, but Brazil was placed in the invidious position of innocent bystander, and in 1922 was still trying a way out of the difficulty. Adding the value of the Antwerp stock also under German control (718,000 sacks) São Paulo was owed nearly seven million pounds sterling, and this sum together with the price of the Havre stock, 1,216,000 bags, was about equal to the foreign debt of S. Paulo. Although payment for the seized coffee stocks was necessarily delayed, São Paulo was by this suddenly opened market for her coffee relieved of the anxious time that might otherwise have been hers after the 1914–15 crop was harvested. A large crop was once more the result of perfect climatic conditions following small _colheitas_ (harvests) of one or two previous years. Early in 1915 the Federal Government prepared to lend São Paulo one hundred and fifty thousand contos of reis with which advances were to be made to planters, enabling the retention of surplus coffee—a variant of the valorization plan which was more generally approved. But by good fortune sales of Brazilian coffee far exceeded expectation; the Scandinavian countries enormously increased their purchases and although a general idea prevailed that it was largely passed on to Germany, no objection was for a long time raised by the Allies. _Country_ _1913_ _1915_ _1920_ United States 4,914,730 7,061,319 6,248,000 bags of 60 kilos. Germany 1,865,632 545,000 „ „ „ „ France 1,846,944 2,449,223 1,540,000 „ „ „ „ Netherlands 1,483,097 1,486,994 376,000 „ „ „ „ Austria 1,016,824 80,000 „ „ „ „ Belgium 444,988 320,000 „ „ „ „ Argentina 249,045 269,987 285,000 „ „ „ „ Great Britain 246,161 413,786 73,000 „ „ „ „ Italy 237,126 710,800 1,002,000 „ „ „ „ Sweden 212,034 2,333,386 386,000 „ „ „ „ Spain 108,928 106,329 145,000 „ „ „ „ Total exports 13,267,449 17,061,319 11,525,000 „ „ „ „