THE CANE INDUSTRY 93 



20 per cent, of the duty, but this has been enough to 

 give a great impetus to its sugar production. American 

 capitalists have been attracted even by this modest 

 bonus, and are exploiting the large and fertile island 

 very thoroughly. Cuba, before the revolution and the 

 subsequent American war with Spain, managed to get 

 up to a million tons of sugar a year ; but during her 

 troubles the crop fell off to a comparatively insignificant 

 figure. In 1897 it was under 300,000 tons, but in 

 1903 had recovered to 1,003,873 tons. Then the pre- 

 ference in United States' markets began to tell rapidly. 

 In 1909 the crop was 1,521,818 tons ; in 1913 it reached 

 2,428,537 tons ; in 1916, with another great jump, it 

 reached 3,007,915 tons. The crop of the following year 

 was correctly estimated at over 3,500,000 tons, but 

 rebellion in the Eastern provinces destroyed the odd 

 500,000 tons. This wonderful and unparalleled increase 

 in production is an instructive instance of the virtue of 

 even a small and reasonable preference in stimulating 

 the investment of capital in industrial production for 

 the permanent benefit of the country both producers 

 and consumers. Cuba is undoubtedly the queen of 

 cane sugar-producing countries, though Java runs her 

 very close. Perhaps the most striking point in the 

 Cuban sugar industry is the size of some of her factories. 

 A few hundred tons of sugar used to be considered a 

 fair or even large out-turn for a sugar factory in the 

 tropics, but now we find in Cuba, as shown in 

 Appendix VII, that the majority of the factories turn 

 out from 10,000 to 100,000 tons of sugar per factory in 

 the season. One effect of the enormous crop of sugar 

 in Cuba has been that the rush of sugar to New York 

 during the heaviest part of crop time has frequently 

 depressed prices far below European parity a curious 

 instance of preferential duties being a benefit even to 



