BEETROOT AND NAPOLEON 



it to Brazil, and when they were expelled from that country 

 by the Portuguese they transferred their canes to the West 

 Indian Islands. Our English islands, Barbados (1643) and 

 Jamaica (1664), soon found the cultivation a very profitable 

 undertaking.^ 



The variations in price of sugar became in process of time 

 of a very serious nature. In the year 1329 it is said that in 

 Scotland a pound of sugar was worth one ounce of standard 

 silver. But from 1780 to 1800 the price fell to 9d. The 

 East Indian sugar began to compete with that from the 

 West Indies about this time, but this was very soon crushed 

 out by imposing a duty of £37 per cwt. 



The West Indies were then very flourishing, but even 

 before this the fatal word beet-sugar had already been heard. 

 It was nothing at first but an interesting experiment by 

 Professor Marcgraf in a German laboratory, who had ex- 

 tracted a little cane-sugar from beetroot in 1747. But in 

 1801 the beet was already in cultivation. Napoleon saw 

 England's monopoly of the cane and judiciously encouraged 

 the beet. The result of his far-seeing policy only became 

 manifest a few years ago, for then the West Indian Islands, 

 which we conquered and guarded against Napoleon at such 

 fearful expense of blood and treasure, were almost worthless ; 

 Continental beet-sugar had ruined our colonial planters and 

 our home refineries. It is in fact a most curious and in- 

 teresting example of how a little judicious encouragement 

 by a wise and far-seeing Government may destroy the profits 

 of victory in a long, glorious, but yet ruinous war. 



1 For full details see Watts, Economic Dictionary of Products of 

 India; Muller, Select Extra-tropical Plants. 



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