A CHAT ABOUT BEET-SUGAR 



10 



1812 France had forty beet-sugar factories at work, 

 which made her a formidable rival to Germany, the 

 homeland of the industry. 



When the Napoleonic blockade was raised, the price 

 of sugar naturally went down, and, just as naturally, 

 the youthful beet-sugar industry found it very hard 

 to compete with the old-established cane-sugar in- 

 dustry. Gradually, however, the new industry was 

 nursed into such a vigorous condition that it became 

 a most threatening rival to the older one. Other 

 European countries followed the lead of Germany and 

 France, and their various Governments came to the 

 assistance of the farmers and manufacturers. Eventu- 

 ally, at the close of the nineteenth century, there 

 existed a State-aided, European beet-sugar industry, 

 which bade fair to ruin the whole world's ancient and 

 widespread cane-sugar industry. 



By this time, however, the European Governments 

 had begun to wake up to the fact that beet-sugar had 

 now attained such a vigorous hold on commercial life 

 that it could very well fight for itself ; and to realize 

 the still more important fact that they had been 

 helping a minority of farmers and manufacturers to 

 grow rich at the expense of the community. Also, by 

 this time, there was a general outcry from sugar- 

 cane planters against the unfair methods of compe- 

 tition resorted to by their rivals. And on both sides, 

 politicians interested in economics and the welfare of 

 the community were agitating for reform. 



The general discontent led to an International Con- 

 ference on the sugar question, in 1903. At this meet- 

 ing, historically known as the Brussels Convention, 

 fair-play terms of competition were arranged, and the 



