Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/84

74 at their entertainments, tea parties, or balls, in their coaches, horses, equipages, servants, and in every thing that tends to support a brilliant and splendid exterior. There are other articles of luxury, which they have converted, throughout the country, into articles of the first necessity; such, for example, are the wines of Madeira, Oporto, Sherry, the Canaries and France, French brandy, coffee, tea, sugar, and butter; (though the last is the product of the country;) for there is scarcely an individual in the United States who does not every day take coffee with milk, bread and butter, and the same thing at night, with the same accompaniments.

It is calculated, that the Anglo- Americans annually consume 30 millions of pounds of butter, and according to the statements of the revenue department, each individual consumes ten pounds of sugar, two and a half of coffee, one of tea, and fifteen of molasses. It is calculated also, that the Americans consume, annually, 100 millions of bottles of wine and brandy, and 500 millions of bottles of beer, cyder, and other liquors; and that the amount annually spent in clothing exceeds 100 millions of dollars.