Another True Quaker Christmas Story AKA We Three Kings Of Chocolate Are . . . In 1900, England was fighting a nasty war against the Boers of South Africa. And Her Majesty Queen Victoria decided she wanted to send a personal Christmas gift (Yes, Christmas! None of this PC Holiday business then!) to the British soldiers in the field. And Her preference was to send each of them a tin of chocolate. And so it was ordered. And the appropriate palace bureaucrat sent out a request for bids from chocolate makers to make the confection and (incidentally) to reap most handsome profit therefrom. Now in those days, behold -- the three largest chocolate makers in fair Albion were all of them Quakers: yea, even Cadbury and Fry and Rowntree. Aside from them, there were hardly enough in the land others to make more than a few bars (never mind sing them, for Lo, the Friends of those did did eschew the temptations of music. And These chocolate Friends were all men of Peace, and having considered the appeal from the palace, and how it was directly connected with the conduct of a most sanguinary war, each decided NOT to bid on the Royal chocolate contract. The news of this action, which later generations would call a peace testimony, was conveyed to the palace. And while her Majestys specific comments were not recorded, it has come down through the chronicles that verily, her Highness was NOT amused. (And that She was also dolefully assured that without the Three, there was none other in England which could handle it.) And while she was by then something considerably less than an Absolute Monarch, as some of her predecessors had claimed to be, even so it was a fearful thing to cross the Victorian stated desire. And so it came to pass that the appropriate palace bureaucrats did take counsel with some of the minions of Whitehall, and then they summoned at least one each of the chieftains of the houses of Cadbury, Rowntree and Fry. Again, it is not known exactly what passed between the servants of the Queen and the Friends of the Cacao Bean. But reports persist that there was mention of such instruments of oppression as regulations, factory inspections, taxation and even worse; others say that heads were knocked together. However it was, thereafter the three Plain Tycoons took their own counsel, yea, they held what in later times would be dubbed a Clearness Committee. And with fear and trembling for their souls salvation, they reached unity on a resolution to render to Caesars regnant successor what they were called to render. And it came to pass that they made the chocolate, sharing the royal order in equal parts; and they made the tins with a raised image of the monarch, but NO sign whatever of the sweetmeats origin. And perhaps most sacrificial-- for they were of a People who did indeed believe in the literal truth expressed in the Gospel According to Luke Chapter Ten Verse 7, to wit, that the labourer is worthy of his hire -- these three Titans of Taste did price the contract so that none of them made a profit from the enterprise, and that none stamped his companys name on the tin itself. More About this saga of peace, yea, can it not be found in the Sacred Book of Ebay? (Behold, it can . . . .)
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 23:07:08 +0000
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