242 SUGAR. 



ter in the way of levying a fair and equitable taxation are 

 enormous. First, as regards the sum-total of sugar produced 

 in various parts of the world, that cannot be got at. As re- 

 gards the amount of sugar, however, which finds its way into 

 commerce in various parts of the world, the aggregate amount 

 of it has been taken as equal to two millions of tons. Of this 

 sum-total more than a quarter finds its way to these islands, 

 either for consumption or export, as raw or else refined. 



I now come to indicate a fact of considerable interest. 

 The value of sugar imported here rises to the enormous 

 annual sum of twelve millions sterling, and of this the Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer has been wont to say, * I must have 

 one clear half.' To put the case in another way, he has been 

 wont to say, ' I must raise six millions through a sugar-tax ; 

 and you, Materfamilias, must pay double as much per pound 

 for sugar as you need have paid but for my financial neces- 

 sities.' The result of Mr. Lowe's altered duties on sugar will 

 be to lower the customs' receipts on this article by a trifle. 

 He could not afford to lower it much he did not intend to 

 lower it much ; the chancellor's great object being to distri- 

 bute the duties leviable upon sugar more fairly than heretofore 

 amongst the various classes of sugar manufacturers. 6 Manu- 

 facturers ;' the word is used advisedly. The two expressions 

 raw sugar and refined sugar have been long consecrated by 

 usage ; fostered by certain people, who found their interest 

 in keeping up a delusion, '. ^ 



British sugar-refiners, though numerically small their 

 whole number falling considerably below a hundred are a 

 very rich and influential class; how rich will appear from 

 the statement, well attested, that from eight to ten millions 

 sterling are embarked upon sugar by refiners of this country, 

 For a long time these gentlemen laboured, and successfully, 

 to make successive Chancellors of the Exchequer believe that 

 refined sugar as the public understands refined sugar to be, 

 namely, white sugar could only be got through their in- 



