The British "Penny University"
Modern coffee shops got their origins from European coffee houses - unique hubs of accessible education, intelligent conversation, and political discourse.
Opened in 1652, London's first coffee house attracted English virtuosi during the British Enlightenment.
Coffee Enters the Ottoman Empire
The first coffee houses appeared in the Ottoman Empire in the 16th Century, and gained popularity as a place to gather without alcohol for practicing Muslims.
​​​
However, coffee was declared a consumption punishable by death by the Sultan Murad IV in 1633. Coffee houses were further banned by sultans in the Ottoman Empire until into the 18th century.
People shared news, debates and ideas in English coffee houses - anyone could have access to these meetings for the price of a coffee (one penny!), Hence, the coining of the term "Penny University" by Oxford locals.
​
It is said that frequent guests of penny universities during the Enlightenment ​included Isaac Newton, Johnathan Swift, and John Dryden. The concept of the London Stock Exchange was even born in Johnathan's Coffee House.
Europe and the "Penny University"
When coffee made its way into Europe in the 1600s, it quickly became the drink of the Enlightenment.
​
Coffee houses were one of the only spaces in England where people could engage in conversations with each other despite financial or social differences. In a highly hierarchical society, this was pivotal to British culture at the time.
Coffee Houses in the American Colonies
Coffee houses spread their way into the early American colonies and coffee became the patriotic drink after the Boston Tea Party in the 1770s. ​During the Revolutionary War, coffee houses were hosts to many conversations of patriotic discourse. The Sons of Liberty were said to meet in coffee houses as well.
​
In the 1780s, the creators of the Bank of New York and the New York Chamber of Commerce met to come up with these businesses in Merchant's Coffee House in New York.
