130 



COMMERCE (INTERNAL) OF THE UNITED STATES. 



this was composed of 35,500 tons made from 

 -molasses, 12,000 tons of maple sugar, and 2,000 

 tons of native beet-root and sorghum sugar, 

 besides the importations above mentioned on 

 both seaboards. The proportion of the import 

 trade coming to the port of New York was 

 over 72 per cent, of the whole in 1876, but 

 only 69-15 per cent, in 1877; the trade of 

 Baltimore, on the other hand, was 64'59 per 

 cent, greater in 1877 than in 1876, and of Bos- 

 ton 43-64 per cent., while the receipts t Port- 

 land and the other New England ports, at 

 Philadelphia, and New Orleans, show a falling 

 off. The fluctuations in price were great dur- 

 ing 1877, the general course being a decline 

 from January till March, an increase till the 

 highest range in June, and then a steady and 

 great falling off till the end of the year. The 

 mean price of brown Havana, for example, was 

 in January, 9|c. ; February, 9c. ; March, 9c. ; 

 April, 9 AC. ; May, lO^c.; June, 10 T Vc. ; July, 

 9c. ; August, 8 T y>.; September, 8 T 7 ^c. ; Octo- 

 ber, 8f c. ; November, 7 T 9 ^c. ; December, 7c. 

 The average prices for the year were 41c. per 

 cwt. higher than in 1876, and 92c. higher than 

 in 1875, for Cuba Musc'ovado, 43c. higher than 

 in 1876 for Porto Rico, 42c. for Havana browns, 

 30c. for Manila, and 33c. for Brazil. 



The Louisiana cane crop was larger in 1876- 

 '77 than it had been in any year since the 

 Southern war. The average prices of New 

 Orleans molasses ruled lower in 1877 than in 

 the preceding year by 4'96c. Of molasses for 

 household use the Louisiana product is the 

 most esteemed, and the large crop of 1877 

 compensated for the short foreign supply. 

 But the refineries can not use the native sorts 

 on account of their high price ; so the cessa- 

 tion of the refining industry explains the small 

 consumption of 39,965,906 gallons in 1877, the 

 smallest in twelve years. The molasses crop 

 of Louisiana and the other Southern States in 

 1876-'77, the main part of which was con- 

 sumed in 1877, was altogether about 12,900,000 

 gallons. The total consumption of molasses in 

 the United States in 1877 was not quite 40,- 

 000,000 gallons, being about 9,000,000 gallons 

 less than in 1876. The consumption of foreign 

 molasses was 27,065,906 gallons, that of the 

 previous year 9,393,598 gallons greater. 



The molasses refining industry labored under 

 great difficulties in 1877. The whole product 

 for the year from molasses received at the At- 

 lantic ports was about 35,500 tons, against 

 43,600 tons the previous year. The deficient 

 crop in the West Indies diminished greatly the 

 supply of molasses, and the refiners stopped 

 their works at an early part of the season. 

 The sugar refineries have suffered from various 

 depressing causes. Carrying light stocks, they 

 received no benefit from the rise of prices in 

 the early part of 1877. The reduction of the 

 rate of drawbacks allowed by the Government 

 on importations to be improved and reexported 

 discouraged the export, and at the close of the 

 year 1877 the manufacture lad been reduced 



nearly one half. A proposed change in the 

 tariff on raw sugars, the abolition of the color 

 standard by which the grades have hitherto 

 been distinguished, and the imposition of a 

 uniform specific duty on all raw sorts, have 

 caused much uneasiness among the refiners. 

 The change has been advocated on the grounds 

 of the greater simplicity of such a duty, the in- 

 adequacy of the color standard in distinguishing 

 qualities, the encouragement of the importation 

 of finer qualities of raw sugar, and the preven- 

 tion of losses to the revenue from the supposed 

 frequent fraudulent artificial coloration of su- 

 gars. Its opponents fear that it will so en- 

 courage the introduction of the high grades 

 and of half-refined sugars as to greatly injure 

 if not nearly destroy the American refining 

 industry, in which a vast capital is embarked, 

 and in which many thousands of laborers, 

 skilled and unskilled, receive employment, and 

 whose appliances and machinery have been 

 perfected for refining and clarifying the dark 

 grades, producing from them a good article. 



The receipts of coffee at all Atlantic ports in 

 1877 were 341,214,438 Ibs. ; stock on hand, 

 January 1, 1877, 4,022,852 Ibs. Of the total 

 supply, 31,529,620 Ibs. remained over January 

 1, 1878. The consumption of the year was 

 therefore 304,430,145 Ibs., against 302,530,219 

 Ibs. in 1876, 307,601,088 Ibs. in 1875, 282,688,- 

 622 Ibs. in 1874, and 269,138,160 Ibs. in 1873. 

 The importations in that year were larger than 

 in any previous year except 1875, and the de- 

 liveries for consumption were only exceeded 

 by the years 1875 and 1871, although the 

 prices ranged higher than in the previous year. 

 The receipts at San Francisco during the year 

 were 16,179,220 Ibs., and the consumption of 

 the Pacific States 11,203,265 Ibs. The remark- 

 able increase in the consumption of coffee in 

 the United States, at a period when a reduc- 

 tion in all luxuries is observable, is in contrast 

 to the consumption of coffee in Europe, which 

 declined in 1877 from 321,250 to 287,685 

 tons, while the total consumption of the Unit- 

 ed States increased from 139,685 tons in 1876 

 to 140,907 tons, 0.87 par cent. more. The 

 Brazil coffees were more largely used than in 

 former years, the imports from Hayti, Porto 

 Rico, Java, Sumatra, Europe, and Ceylon de- 

 clining. The average gold price for the Rio 

 berry for the year 1877, at New York, was 

 19-72c. per lb., against 17'97c. in 1876, and 

 19-lc. in 1875. New York's share in the cof- 

 fee trade is increasing; 64*38 per cent, of the 

 imports came to that port in 1877, 61 per cent, 

 in 1876, and 59 per cent, in 1875. The extent 

 of the fluctuations in price was 3^c. per lb. for 

 Brazil and Maracaibo, and 2|c. for Java and 

 San Domingo. The year 1877 was not a pros- 

 perous one for the trade. 



The tea trade in the United States has been 

 undergoing a considerable revolution of late, 

 and the principal importing houses, once firmly 

 seated in New York, have seen their trade di- 

 verted into other channels. Closer conmmni 



