SACCHARUM 



OFFICINARUM 



Trade 





THE SUGAR-CANE PLANT 



Spirits. 



Wall Plaster. 



Trade. 



Sample 

 Shipments. 



Danger. 



Oily Taste. 



Colonial versus 

 Indian Sugar. 



India's Foreign 

 Interests. 



East India Sugar 

 Quoted. 



Demands of 

 India. 



China. 

 Egypt. 



[Cf. Walton, in Agri. Qaz. N.-S. Wales, 1898, ix., 169 et seq. ; U.S. Dept. Agri. 

 (many passages) ; Queensland Agri. Journ., 1899, v., 348 ; Journ. Board Agri., 

 1901, viii. ; Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer, 1902, 337 ; Gill. Journ. 

 Soc. Arts, xlix., 516 et seq. ; International Sugar Journ., 1902, iv., 339, 403 ; 

 Molasses, in Imp. Dept. of Agri. Barbados and Porto Rico, 1903, No. 28.] 



Rum and Spirits. The combination of a rum or spirit distillery with 

 the sugar factory has been often maintained as highly profitable, and by 

 others used as an argument against the extension of sugar factories. 

 Country brands of rum are said to be often coloured and flavoured in order 

 to be sold as brandies and whiskies. The spirit produced pays a duty 

 averaging from Rs. 4 to 6. The most important factory of this kind is 

 the Rosa at Shahjahanpur in the United Provinces (see Spirits, p. 1046). 



Chunam. In passing it may be here mentioned that sugar is uni- 

 versally used in some form along with lime in producing the much-famed 

 chunam plaster (see p. 293). 



TRADE IN SUGAR. 



Centuries may be accepted as having intervened between the discovery 

 of sugar and the time when it began to be a necessity of European life. 

 We read of early transactions with India, which may be indicated by the 

 following : In Birdwood and Foster (E.I.C. First Letter Book, " 338) 

 mention is made in the commission of certain ships sailing for the East 

 Indies in 1609, that they were to procure " sugars of the best some twenty 

 chestes for a triall." In a similar commission (1611, 407) we read again, 

 " sugars of the best some fewe chestes for a triall." In one of the Factor's 

 Records from Surat, addressed to Sir Thomas Roe in 1616 (Foster's E.I.C. 

 Letters, iv., 327), occurs the observation " We deny not but that Bengalla 

 brings wheat, rice, and sugar to Indya " (Hindustan proper), " makes fine 

 cloths, etc., which showeth the fertility of the country and the quality of 

 the inhabitants," etc., etc. In a letter of date December 28, 1617 (I.e. 

 vi., 280), Edward Monox threw doubt on the desirability of complying with 

 the Company's indents for Surat sugar. He urges that the sugar is a light , 

 spongy article, "which I am persuaded with the damp of the hold coming 

 into our moist climate will moulder and break to pieces and thereby prove 

 unsaleable ; besides it hath such an oily taste that it will not please our 

 English palates." Indian sugar, however, gradually assumed importance 

 in Europe, and on cane cultivation being established as a European 

 industry in the British Colonies, it obtained a fresh impetus. But the 

 birth of the Colonial was the death of the Indian trade with Europe. The 

 Honourable Company of East India Merchants becoming aware of the loss 

 India had sustained in its failure to create, or even to participate in the 

 greatly increased traffic, made strenuous efforts to awaken interest in the 

 subject. Although many obstacles were thrown in the way, the Company 

 succeeded in reviving and greatly enlarging India's foreign interests in 

 sugar. Heavy losses were for years patiently borne in the hope of ultimate 

 success. East Indian sugar became regularly quoted, and it improved in 

 quality as time went on. Moreover, the internal trade of India itself gave 

 distinct indications of expansion. The demands of the people for superior 

 qualities had grown so strong that the imported refined article gradually 

 came to bear, in the various languages and dialects of the country, names 

 that denoted the foreign countries of supply, such as chini (China) and 

 misri (Egypt). There is, in fact, abundant evidence that for centuries the 

 art of refining was not generally known to the people of India. According 

 to Chinese records the knowledge would appear to have been derived from 



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