INDIA. 



311 



hundredweight. For the benefit of Indian culti- 

 vation and the sugar-planters of Mauritius the 

 Government imposed countervailing duties on 

 bounty-fed sugar. Owing to heavy stocks and 

 diminished consumption in 1900, the first year of 

 the duties, the imports declined to 2,93(5,000 hun- 

 dredweight, of which 00,000 hundredweight came 

 from Germany, 778,000 hundredweight from Aus- 

 tria-Hungary, 1,417,000 hundredweight from 

 Mauritius, 588,000 hundredweight from China, 

 Java, and the Straits Settlements, and 93,000 hun- 

 dredweight from other countries. In the year 

 ending March 31, 1901, the imports of refined 

 sugar were the greatest on record, amounting to 

 4,842,000 hundredweight, of which Germany fur- 

 nished 402,000 hundredweight, Austria-Hungary 

 1,321,000 hundredweight, Mauritius 2,085,000 hun- 

 dredweight, China, Java, and the Straits Settle- 

 ments 832,000 hundredweight, and other countries 

 202,000 hundredweight. The imports of beet-sugar 

 formed half the total in 1898; in 1901 they were 

 still one-third. The Austrian Government met the 

 duties by giving extra subsidies to steamers for 

 carrying sugar, and the steamship company has 

 contracted to carry 30 per cent, more sugar in 1902. 

 A bad crop in India in 1900 was one of the causes 

 of the large imports in 1901, and improved methods 

 of cultivation have enabled Mauritius to compete 

 with European producers on more even terms. 

 The benefit the sugar cultivators of that colony 

 and those of the eastern countries of Asia receive 

 from the countervailing duties is nevertheless re- 

 flected in the figures, although it can not be accu- 

 rately measured. The Government has benefited 

 by obtaining a larger revenue from sugar imports, 

 350,190 in 1901 against 142,150 in 1899. The 

 effect on Indian production will take time to de- 

 velop. The natives are acquiring a liking for 

 refined sugar, although the coarse native product 

 in 1900 was sold dearer than imported white 

 sugar. Improvement in the selection and culti- 

 vation of cane and in the extraction and cleansing 

 of the sugar has yet to be introduced in India, 

 which is one of the greatest cane-growing coun- 

 tries in the world, having nearly 3,000,000 acres 

 under sugar; but the ordinary yield is only 1 

 ton per acre, compared with 3 tons in Barbados 

 and 4 tons in Java. Even with this small yield 

 India produces 17 times as much as she imports. 

 The extension of the area of sugar-cane would not 

 be profitable until crude and wasteful methods 

 of production are changed. A commission was ap- 

 pointed to examine the question of sugar as an 

 alternative or auxiliary crop for the indigo 

 planters of Behar. The commission recommended 

 cultivation in accordance with modern scientific 

 agriculture, with central crushing-mills furnished 

 with evaporating pans and centrifugal apparatus, 

 central refineries also; if capital were put into 

 these modern appliances, railroad rates reduced, 

 and an agency for distribution and sales organ- 

 ized, a profit of from 50 to 80 per cent, was fore- 

 seen at present prices, and Behar alone could 

 produce 1,320,000 hundredweight. Direct aid from 

 the Government to planters was not advised, but 

 in an experimental agricultural station the im- 

 proved methods could be demonstrated, the best 

 varieties of cane discovered, and various other 

 crops tried. India with modern methods could 

 produce nearly twice as much sugar as at present, 

 and, instead of importing, could export great 

 quantities as in former times. Indigo supplanted 

 sugar in Behar about 1840. This is an ancient 

 crop in India, but the industry has died away 

 and been revived several times. Europe in the 

 seventeenth century refused to import more in- 

 digo in order to protect woad, and when Indian 



dye came into favor again the West Indies in 

 the following century took a\\ay Hie trade until 

 the East India Company look it in hand and 

 placed it on its former footing. Kuropean planters 

 with capital and enterprise built up the industry 

 now carried on in Behar, and during (he nine- 

 teenth century the best Indian indigo had no com- 

 petitor except the Javan product. It is an ex- 

 pensive crop to raise, and bad seasons brinjj 

 heavy losses which must be made up by large 

 profits in good years. Bankruptcy has been the 

 lot of a large proportion of the indigo planters, 

 who have had to contend in recent times, not only 

 with the vicissitudes of the seasons, but with 

 the competition of substitutes. The cheap alizarin 

 dyes checked the demand for all but the best 

 indigo, but did not cause a decline. Exports were 

 larger in the last quarter of a century than in 

 the previous one. The record year was 1890, 

 when 187,000 hundredweight was exported. Poor 

 seasons have followed, and yet the price has gone 

 down from 207 rupees a maund in that year to 

 192 rupees in 1900, when the export was only 

 111,000 hundredweight. The indigo acreage, 

 which averaged 1,400,000 acres between 1894 and 

 1899, was reduced to 1,027,000 acres in the latter 

 year, and 904,000 acres in 1900. A new substitute 

 for natural indigo has come into the market 

 which threatens the planting industry with ex- 

 tinction. German chemists have produced real 

 indigo by synthesis, using as the basis naphthalin, 

 a coal-tar product of which the supply is ample. 

 This is treated with sulfuric acid, which is re- 

 converted and used over again indefinitely, and 

 there are valuable by-products. The synthetic 

 dye, known as indigo pure, is made in a factory 

 at Ludwigshafen, in which 900,000 has been 

 invested, extending it x so that as much can be 

 made every year as a quarter of the whole acreage 

 in Behar can yield. Indigo pure is produced in 

 unvarying quality, essentially superior to the best 

 of natural indigo". Dyers like it, for they pay 20 

 per cent, more for it than for Indian indigo be- 

 cause the results are always uniform. The colors 

 differ slightly from those of the natural dye, but 

 they please the public taste equally well. The 

 Behar commission concluded that indigo can be 

 grown at a cost of 135 rupees a maund instead 

 of 170 rupees. The indigo planters, conscious 

 that they are engaged in a life-and-death struggle, 

 resolved to adopt all the improvements which 

 their own and the Government's investigations 

 show to be useful, to endeavor to get 50 to 100 

 per cent, more from the acre by the use of super- 

 phosphates and other artificial manures, to plant 

 sugar, oil-seeds, and tobacco as rotation crops, 

 to extract 25 per cent, more dye by oxidizing the 

 decoction with compressed air, and to plant as 

 much as they can and send a great quantity of in- 

 digo into the market, expecting only small profits 

 but hoping to discourage the Baden company by 

 underselling the artificial indigo. The Bengal 

 Government has granted 50,000 rupees a year for 

 scientific investigations. The Behar commission 

 was not as sanguine as the indigo planters' asso- 

 ciation that they can save their trade, which has 

 been worth 1,500,000 a year. The commission 

 considered the future of indigo precarious in spite 

 of the improved methods lately introduced, and 

 that the competition of synthetic indigo will at 

 all events prevent any increase in the price of 

 vegetable indigo and will affect most seriously the 

 finest and most expensive, w r hich is that of Behar, 

 and cause a reduction in price which will hardly 

 clear the planter in a good season, while in a bad 

 season it will be ruinous. 

 The total value of imports by sea in the fiscal year 



