In Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days, chapter 1, is the following curious sentence. Boldfacing is mine.
If [Phileas Fogg] dined or breakfasted, the kitchens, the buttery, the pantry, the dairy of the Club furnished his table from their succulent stores; the waiters of the Club, grave personages in dress-coats and shoes with swanskin soles, served him in a special porcelain and on fine Saxon linen; the Club decanters of a lost mould contained his sherry, his port, and his claret, flavoured with orange flower water and cinnamon; and finally the ice of the Club, brought at great expense from the American lakes, kept his drinks in a satisfactory condition of freshness.
Would a restaurant in London (which is where Fogg lived) really get their ice from "American lakes"? Surely there were lakes in England, and many more in the colder parts of the Continent, from which one could get ice that was just as good, and a lot cheaper. Shipping it over from America seems ridiculous.
As for the dating, the book was published in 1873. The story is said to take place in October-December 1872.
The short answer is yes, the idea of imported ice would not have been especially strange to Verne's readers, as there was a lively import trade of the item into the United Kingdom during the 19th century, not just from America, but from other frozen locales as well, especially Norway.
Prior to the 19th century, the UK was mostly dependent on the domestic ice-industry, which was lackluster at best, given the uneven quality of winter, and thus, the unpredictable quality of ice. The few people who had access to it were, for the most part, the wealthy landowners who could afford the cost required for maintenance of ice sheds, and had the land on which to harvest it. It was also often considered to be of poor quality - both the water itself, as well as the presence of plant material - which rendered it unusable for anything that might be consumed. By the early 19th century though, importation of ice began to supplement the meager native offerings, with the fishing industry being at the forefront, as it was a necessity for them when sending their catches inland. The earliest reports of this date to about 1821, with Norwegian ice being shipped across.
The Norwegians, however, were fairly slow to capitalize on this, despite their relative proximity, and their imports remained small, and mostly for the fishing industry for several decades. It would instead be the United States that, and specifically a man named William Deane, that would really get the international ice trade roaring in the UK in the mid-1840s.
The American ice trade was already several decades old by that point, credited mainly to Frederic Tudor, who had begun shipping ice to the West Indies in 1805, and after the War of 1812, he would even be given a monopoly by the British and Spanish for a time. His business expanded to South America, and even as far away as India, but for whatever reason, he never shipped to the UK in that period, the first company to do so being Gage, Hittinger, and Co. in 1842. They lost money on the venture, however.
It would be two years later that the Wenham Lake Ice Company, founded by Charles Lander and Henry T. Ropes, kickstarted the import to the UK (Tudor did not found this company, best I can find, despite Wikipedia saying he did...). The key, was marketing, and the Wenham Lake Ice Company had an agent with a flair for it, the aforementioned Deane. His salesmanship quick to make a name for itself and its superior product, harvested from its eponymous New England lake of. The crystal clear blocks which the Ellen over in 1844 were far superior to anything available in England, and considered suitable for use at table, and even the more porous "industrial quality" was much better than that available locally. Being able to boast of supplying their ice to the Queen herself was a further notch in the company's cap.
Their success was contagious, and several other American companies quickly followed suit, and the Norwegians, realizing they had missed an opportunity to build up their earlier market, quickly increased exports as well. A few other countries would attempt to break into the industry without any real success. This was hardly welcome news to the American importers, since, given the relative distances, Norwegian ice was about half the cost - a per ton cost of £1 versus £2 10s - and as a result some American ice companies also set up shop in Norway. Wenham Lake Ice Company, for instance, bought harvest rights for a lake in Norway... which it renamed Wenham Lake, of course. Eventually, American companies ceased bothering to ship from the USA, and exclusively shipped from Norway.
The import business grew over several decades, although largely driven at first by industrial concerns, serving companies which needed it in large amounts (Fish and game shipments, as well as brewing and confectionary makers). Large businesses such as restaurants, hotels and boarding houses were also buyers - especially in summer tourist destinations - and we would likely expect a fine gentleman's club such as Mr. Fogg's to also provide such a service for its clients (I would only add as a speculative aside, but the specificity of American Ice versus Norwegian, the former being more expensive, might have meant something to the reader, but again, that is only speculation). As the trade expanded in the 1870s and 1880s, domestic usage increased, although restricted, as might be expected, mostly to upper and upper-middle class households. Using one representative seller in the early 1870s, Mr. J. Hartley, the ice was sold at 3d. per pound and 6s. per hundredweight. If you keep in mind the import costs, this was quite a markup, as Mr. Hartley would sell a ton of ice for £28 if by the pound, and still £6 by the hundredweight.
By the end of the century though, the business model was finally being threatened by the rising business of artificial manufacture. In Grimsby, a new ice plant built in 1897 meant that merchants could get a ton of artificial ice for 5s. 0.2d. while imported ice was a hefty 15s. 10d. This was, obviously, not a sustainable model for the importers, and the impact was quickly felt. In Manchester, for example, it ceased importation in 1899, no longer able to match the prices of the product from the Manchester Patent Ice Company. The First World War would kill off what remained of the import business, as the war requirements saw a large expansion of the artificial ice industry, coupled with an almost complete cessation of overseas ice shipments, something that wouldn't change following the end of the war.
Artificial manufacture in Grimsby
Norwegian imports in the early 20th century. Note the decline, especially come 1915.
David, Robert. 1995. "The Demise of the Anglo-Norwegian Ice Trade." Business History 37, no. 3: 52-69. Business Source Complete
David, Robert. 2013 The Ice Trade and the Northern Economy, 1840–1914, Northern History, 36:1, 113-127
Phillips, John C. Wenham Great Pond.
Rees, Jonathan. Refrigeration Nation
Wood, Paul. 2013. America's natural ice industry, part I. The Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc. 66, (3) (09): 91-111,
ETA: Found a bit more info to flesh things out.
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