140 SUGAR 



houses among the English sugar-brokers followed his 

 example, opened branches in Paris and Magdeburg, and 

 ran a very good race with him. 



Then came a great help. Those refiners who used 

 beetroot sugar on a large scale soon found the want of 

 some organization for getting rid of the constant worry 

 of complaints of quality and weight in the deliveries 

 of the beetroot sugar they were importing. The result 

 was the foundation of the London Beetroot Sugar 

 Association. This organized body of buyers and sellers 

 has worked admirably. A form of contract was estab- 

 lished which became, eventually, a very complete and 

 effectual document. Every dispute is now settled by 

 arbitration, carried out by the Council of the Association 

 in a simple but efficient manner. The sugar is bought 

 and sold on the basis of analysis. Samples are most 

 carefully taken under the supervision of officers of the 

 Association. A portion of the sample is placed in three 

 sealed bottles, of which one goes to the seller, one to the 

 buyer, and the third to the laboratory of the Association. 

 If there is a serious discrepancy between buyer's and 

 seller's analysis the third sample is analysed by the 

 chemist of the Association, and the average of the two 

 nearest analyses is taken as the basis of the invoice. 

 Here is at once a system which makes the buying and 

 selling of sugar mere child's play. The large brokers 

 with their branches abroad can let you have any quantity 

 of sugar you desire. 



The British sugar refiners now supply about 700,000 

 tons to our consumers, and at one time made it nearly 

 all from raw beetroot sugar. That indicates the quan- 

 tity of that commodity which we annually imported. 

 But the foreign refiner now supplies our consumers 

 with about 900,000 tons l of refined beetroot sugar every 



1 This, of course, is a description of the normal state of 

 things immediately before war upset everything. 



