10 SUGAR 



As to refineries on the Thames, a few words may be 

 not altogether out of place. The first monster building 

 to appear there was built, as has bsen already stated, 

 about the year 1864 by the Greenock firm who made 

 a rapid fortune by quick and extensive adoption of a 

 new process. The London house was carried on by 

 James Duncan, one of the partners. He was the prince 

 of sugar refiners in his time, and never ceased to keep 

 himself informed of all that was going on in the great 

 beetroot sugar industry of Europe. His enterprise 

 was unbounded, and his success undisputed. The 

 whole region round about the Victoria Docks banefited, 

 not only from the great industry which he established 

 in its midst, but also from his constant munificent, 

 though silent, assistance to ah 1 good works in the district. 

 Though he had a beautiful estate on the banks of the 

 Clyde, he was never an idle man. Always at work, 

 always thinking out some new scheme, he soon 

 distanced his competitors. But when the crisis of 1884 

 arrived, with all its disasters, he had a hard struggle 

 and, in 1886, his great works at Clyde wharf, Victoria 

 Docks, were closed. At one time he is said to have 4 

 turned out two thousand tons a week. He lived for 

 many years in happy retirement. He was for years 

 Chairman of the British Sugar Refiners' Committee 

 during their long fight against unfair foreign competition. 



Then came another man, the late Sir Henry Tate, 

 who made a rapid fortune by quick and bold adoption 

 of a new process. While others talked he acted. He 

 was lucky in one respect. He came to London in 1877 

 to make loaf (cube) sugar, just at the moment when 

 the French Government, goaded by our persistent 

 exposure of the vast profits made by Paris refiners 

 out of the sugar duty, at last abolished the questionable 

 practices and set matters on a more even footing. 



