8ACCHARUM 

 PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION orriciHARuit 



Trade 



total. Austria- Hungary, diminishing her contribution by nearly 729,000 



cut., drops t<> the fourth plm with 17'53 per cent, of the toUl ; and 



( J'-miany, u ith the largest arrival* she haa yet recorded, take* third place Germany. 



with 21-7 per cent." 



Thus it may 'Lit the Mauritian supplies of rane-sugar have Calcutta 



hitherto been to Bombay what the Javan have been to Calcutta. But and 

 all the same, beet-sugar may be viewed as having begun seriously to contest Bombay. 

 both these markete. 



INTERNAL TRADE. Production and Consumption. It haa been Concump 

 estimated that India prodm -es a little over one ton per acre of gwr (crude tion. 

 su-_rar), or '2k million tons for its total acreage, which, reduced to th<- 

 standard of refined sugar, would be, say, one million tons. If th<- 

 imports of about 400,000 tons be added, we obtain a total supply of U Tout Supply. 

 million tons of refined su^ar. Divided by the head of population, this 

 mi- ht be accepted as showing the consumption. But any such calculation 

 would be most misleading, because (1) we have no sort of certainty as 

 to the yield a ton of gur per acre seems absurdly low ; (2) to the bulk of 

 the people a pound of gur very possibly serves the equivalent purpose of 

 a pound of refined sugar to other communities ; and (3) with a large 

 percentage of the people of India gur or sugar are unknown luxuries. It 

 has been stated that the per capita consumption of India is 35 lb., a figure 

 based on the assumption that the supply comes to three million tons, 

 which from the above showing is probably double the actual amount. 

 This is compared with European countries, such as Germany, where it is 

 28 lb., and France 24 lb. There is perhaps little to be gained by such 

 calculations and comparisons. But it may be useful to examine the 

 returns of gur carried by rail and river as indicative of local production 

 and consumption. 



Traffic by Rail and River. The internal trade is returned in cwt. and Rail 

 divided into two sections (a) refined sugar and (6) unrefined sugar. Traffic. 

 The grand total of the movements of the former kind came in 1906-7 to R*flnd 

 5,984,425 cwt. Fully three-fourths of that amount is' usually distributed 

 from the seaport towns, and thus includes (with local manufactures) the 

 foreign imports. The shares taken were .-Bombay, 2,039,492 cwt. ; 

 Karachi, 1,863,451 cwt. ; Calcutta, 1,248,595 cwt. ; and Madras, 111,368 

 cwt. And these figures are relatively correct for at least the past five 

 years. The CALCUTTA supply ordinarily goes to Eastern Bengal and Assam, 

 572,591 cwt. ; to Bengal, 363,641 cwt. ; and to the United Provinces, 235,573 

 cwt. The BOMBAY supply goes to the Bombay Presidency, 843,067 cwt. ; to 

 the Central Provinces, 367,255 cwt. ; to the United Provinces, 358,530 cwt. ; 

 and to Rajputana and Central India, 241,363 cwt. The KARACHI supply 

 goes principally to the Panjab, 1,427,823 cwt., and to Sind, 345,593 < 

 But Calcutta has, however, manifested a remarkable expansion which is 

 most significant. In 1900-1 exports from Calcutta by rail and river were odj 

 477,636 cwt. ; in 1901-2, 505,789 cwt. ; in 1902-3, 567,200 cwt. ; in <? 

 1903-4, 839,210 cwt. ; in 1904-5, 1,002,185 cwt. ; in 1905-6, 1,059,416 

 cwt. ; and in 1906-7, 1 ,248,595 cwt. This perhaps is the direct expression of 

 the expanding foreign imports. Thus in 1900-1 Bengal (Calcutta mar 

 imported 1,342,034 cwt. of refined or crystallised sugar, and that figure was 

 gradually augmented until in 1904-5 it stood at 2,107,461 cwt., in 1906-6 at 

 2,197,303 cwt., and in 1906-7 at 3,305,860 cwt. The increasing importance 

 of Calcutta in the foreign sugar trade is a feature of great consequence. 



961 61 



