Déjà brew

How a 19th-century Cape coffee boom reveals the hidden consequences of Trump’s new tariff war

The year is 1839. In Cape Town’s harbour, ships begin arriving with unusual frequency. They carry not only the usual mix of goods for colonial consumption but something more valuable and more mysterious in its volume – coffee. Ship after ship, sack after sack.

But these coffee sacks are not destined for colonial breakfast tables in the beautiful Cape Dutch homes of the Boland. In fact, they barely pause in the Cape before heading back out to sea, now aboard British-flagged vessels bound for London, Liverpool and Bristol.

Something odd is happening…