1830.] Increase of Consumption and Revenue. 



it in China in 1751. Thornberg in his Flora Japonica. (pub. 1784) 

 describes it as indigenous in Japan. Mr. Bruce found it in Upper 

 Egypt. There is reason to believe it was introduced into Europe 

 in the time of the Crusades. Albertus Acquensis mentions that the 

 Christian soldiers in the Holy Land frequently derived nourishment from 

 sucking the canes during a scarcity of provisions. 



It also nourished in Rhodes and Malta. Lafitau the Jesuit, mentions 

 that in 1166, William II. of Sicily made a grant to the monastery of St. 

 Bennet (in Malta?) of a mill for grinding cane, with all its rights and 

 members. From Malta it was probably transplanted to Sicily, where it still 

 flourishes. From thence it was probably carried to Spain, and to Madeira, 

 the Canaries, and Cape de Verd islands, soon after their discovery in the 

 15th century. There is an account of a shipment at Venice for England 

 in 1319, of 100,0001bs. of sugar, and 10,000lbs. of sugar candy, which was 

 said to have come from the Levant. The sugar cane may have been 

 carried to the West Indies and South America by the Spaniards and 

 Portuguese ; yet Peter Martyr, in the third book of his first decade, com- 

 posed during the second voyage of Columbus, which commenced in 1493 

 and ended in 1495, says that it was known in Hispaniola at that time. 



Thomas Gage, an Englishman, enumerates sugar canes among other 

 provisions supplied to his ship by the Caribs of Guadaloupe, in 1625* 

 And Labat asserts that it must have been indigenous, for the Spaniards 

 are not supposed to have cultivated an inch of ground in the smaller 

 Antilles, and the natives were probably too indolent. 



On the whole the probability is, that the sugar cane is indigenous to 

 the West Indies, but that the Spaniards and Portuguese first practised 

 the art, there, of manufacturing it into sugar. 



The duty on this article, in England, commenced with the reign of 

 Charles II. and had reached the amount of 3*. 5d. per hundred weight 

 in the reign of Queen Anne. By small additions in the reign of Geo. II. 

 and up to the 19th of Geo. III. it amounted to about 6.9. Sd. In 1781 

 a large increase took place, and with a trifling subsequent addition 

 it amounted in the 27th Geo. III. to 12*. 4d. In 1791 it became 15*.: 

 in 1797 it was raised to 17*. 6d. ; and, as in the annexed table, it was, 

 in 1799, finally fixed at 20*. on the cwt. Soon after the breaking out of 

 the French war in 1803, three successive acts of parliament for granting 

 additional duties to his majesty " during the present war, and until the 

 ratification of a definitive treaty of peace" were passed, whereby fifty per 

 cent, was added to the former duty of 20*. 



The consumption in 1700 amounted to about 200,000 cwt. 



1710 280,000 



1734 840,000 



1754 1,065,400 



1770to 1775, it averaged 1,450,000 



1786 to 1790 1,620,000 



From that period the progressive increase of consumption, with the 

 corresponding duty, average price (as nearly as can be calculated), and 

 the annual revenue derived from it, may be seen by the annexed table. 



4P2 



