158 CULTURE OF THE SUGAR BEET. 



These rates were continued with slight variation until 1839 and 1840 

 relative to sugars from foreign sources, hut in 1829 the production of 

 indigenous sugar had become so extended and so prosperous that 

 the government decided to make it subject to an internal revenue tax. 

 This proposition did not, however, receive the sanction of the cham- 

 bers, and it was not until 1837, when urged by colonial influences 

 and complaints, that the tax was levied by a vote of the chambers 

 and the co-operation of the government. This tax consisted of a fee 

 of 50 francs ($10) for license to manufacture, and a special tax of 15 

 francs per 100 kilograms of raw sugar produced. The special tax was 

 to be 10 francs from July 1, 1838, and 15 francs from July 1, 1839. The 

 same law established grades of sugar depending upon grades of color. 



According to Mauinene' the effect of this law was injurious to the man- 

 ufacture in sections where fuel and labor were scarce and costly, and it 

 was concentrated in the departments of the north of France, where 

 these obstacles did not exist to the same extent, and the industry was 

 crushed out in 17 of the 37 departments in which it had been estab- 

 lished, and 63 of the 485 factories that had been in operation were closed, 

 and the production fell from 49,000 to 22,000 tons. The law aroused 

 bad feeling, and the suppression of the manufacture of beet-root sugar 

 was suggested, and a proposition to this effect was even made by the 

 government of Louis Phillippe to the chambers ; but popular feeling 

 was too powerful in its influence, and it was not made a law. In 1840 

 and 1843 the taxes upon sugars from foreign sources were established at 

 38.50 francs to 66.50 francs per 100 kilograms, according to origin and 

 quality, for French colonial sugars, while for sugars from foreign ports 

 it was made 65 to 75 for cargoes carried in French ships, and 85 for car- 

 goes brought in foreign vessels, and consisting of raw sugars other than 

 white ; while for foreign white or clayed sugars, without distinction, it 

 was from 80 to 95, according to origin, if brought in French ships, and 

 105 francs if brought in foreign vessels, without regard to origin. At 

 the same time, the drawback upon exported refined sugars was estab- 

 lished, with a premium gauged in such a way that 70 to 73 kilograms 

 of refined sugar, according to form, corresponded with 100 kilograms of 

 raw. sugar imported. The second section of the same law established 

 the rate of tax upon indigenous sugars, which varied according to the 

 quality of the product, graded by the shade and form it was found to 

 possess. The rates ranged from 25 francs per 100 kilograms to 36.10 

 francs, and were continued until 1843, when a law was enacted provid- 

 ing that from the 1st of August, 1844, and during four successive years, 

 there should be an increase of 5 francs per year upon all sugars of the 

 first type and upon inferior shades. This effected an ultimate increase 

 to 45 to 58.50 francs per 100 kilograms, according to quality, and placed 

 the indigenous sugars upon an equality as to taxes with the colonial 

 sugars. But with the stimulus that had been given to the sugar indus- 

 try by the various improvements that had been made in the methods of 



