1839 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



519 



Europe was for hall' a century mainly supplied. 

 Jjut the rapiiJ exhaustion of the soils seems insep- 

 arable from liie culiivaiion of the cane Willi ihe 

 labor of slaves and serfs. It is reasonable to sup- 

 pose, that tins was the ^rc-;:t cause of the succes- 

 sive n)igraiions ot" this iiusiness westward-, and iis 

 early decline in Sicily, Spain, and the Alrico-Al- 

 lanlic islands. 



In St. Dominjxo there wa^re, in 1518, twenty- 

 eifht sugar presses, in about half a century, this 

 island succeeded to the inheritance of the niarkels 

 of Europe, which it monopolized and enlarged 

 during a century and a hali; exporting sixty-five 

 thousand tons in one year, being about 100,000,080 

 lbs. surplus, afier supplying the demand of the 

 mother country. In any possible siiualion of ihal 

 island, it could not have niaintained until this time 

 that monopoly, and that rate of production. At 

 the beginning of the present century, the entire 

 exporlaiion from the West Indies and American 

 settlements of every description, was 440,800,000 

 lbs; now it is 400,000,000 lbs, from the Briiish 

 West Indies alone, and 700,000,000 lbs. more from 

 Brazil and tlie Spanish, French, Dutch, and Dan- 

 ish colonies. In 1750, only 80,000,000 lbs. were 

 exported from the British West Indies, one-fifih 

 of the present export. 



Of course the consumption of sugar has great- 

 ly increased during the last half cenlury ; and it 

 seems destined loan indefinite extension. It is 

 so nutritive, wholesome, and agreeable, that there 

 can never be a limit to its use except in a prohibi- 

 tion or an inability to buy it. Men and nations 

 differ widely in their tastes and habits in res[iect 

 to most Ivinds of food, sauce, and drinks. Neither 

 wheat, rice, flesh, nor potatoescan command unan- 

 imous favor. No article of housekeejiing, save 

 sugar, can he named, which is universnlly accep- 

 lable,-to the inlant and the aged, the civilized and 

 the savage. 



The population of the Biiiish. "West Indies is 

 Gijual to that of Cuba; but their consumption of 

 sugar was, in 1827, only 13,000,000, lbs., eigh- 

 teen pounds to an inhabitant, while that of Cuba 

 was, ill the same year, 44,000,000 lbs., or sixty- 

 three pounds to an inhabitant. This difierence is 

 presumed to be owing to the predominance of the 

 ii-ee over the slave population, in the latter islands. 

 Tlie ratio of the free population of Cuba to the 

 slave, is three to one ; but in the British West 

 Indies, one to three. This proportion would give 

 the difierence of Ihe quantities of sugar consumed, 

 with almost entire accuracy. 



The population ofall ihe sufrar growing countries 

 in ihe world is abotjt 468,000.000. It is'not to he 

 |)resumed, tliat each individual- of this number 

 consumes as much as ihe luxurious West Indian; 

 but it will not be extravagant to suppose, that they 

 all consume as largely as the Me.xicans. Mexico, 

 by the lowness of wages, and' the ignorance anci 

 poverty of the mass, may be considered as a fiir 

 representative of the nations, inhabiting that beh 

 of the earth producing sugar canes. She consumes; 

 according to M. tlumholdl, ten pounds to an in- 

 habitant, all of domestic produclion. We thus 

 determine proximately that the consumption o( the 

 other Hispano-American nations, and of the 

 swarms wliich people the east, is 5,000,000,000 

 lbs. per annum, nearly four times as much as is 

 used in Europe and "ihe United Slaies. Great 

 Britain consumes 400,000,000 lbs., about twenty- 



four pounds to each inhabitant; the United Stales 

 200,000,000 lbs., sixteen pounds to an inhafiitani; 

 our (iomeslic. piotluclion beinir estimated at 50,000 

 hhds., or 50,000,000 lbs. In irelaiid, th« con- 

 sumption is 40 millions of pounds, five pounds to 

 an individual In Russia, it is much less, being 

 but a litile more ihan one pound to a per- 

 son, and 60 million in the whole, unless the 

 article be introduced inland from China, by way 

 of Kiachta, as to some extent it probably is. 

 Of the quantity consumed in Russia, we suppose 

 8 millions of pounds to be beet sugar. Belgium 

 consumes 30 millions of pounds, seven pounds to 

 an inhabitant, of which 5 millions of pounds are 

 beet; and Prussia, Austria, and the rest of Germa- 

 ny, 200 milli©i>s of pounds, of which 20 millions 

 may be beet. This is lour pounds and a half to 

 an inhabitant. Holland consumes 50,000,000 lbs., 

 sixteen pounds to an inhabitant ; Spain, the same, 

 which is but four pounds to an inhabitant ; France, 

 230,304,549 lbs., seven pounds to each inhabitant. 

 Of this, 107,905,785 lbs. were, in 1836, made from 

 beet roots. With the exception of a few manu- 

 fiictories in Italy, the above figures show the ex- 

 tent of the beet sugar culture. Thus we have, 

 for the total consumption of suffar in Europe, 

 1,267,000,000 lbs., of which 140,000,000, or 62,500 

 tons, are beer sugar; and, lor the total consump- 

 tion ' throughout the world, 6,267,000,000 lbs., 

 worth, at six cents a pound, .*;376,020,000. 



The cost ol"the produclion of cane sugar varies. 

 It depends mainly on the price of labor. In the 

 east, where labor is from 6 to 10 cents a dav, 

 sugar costs to the manufacturer from 1 to 2 cents a 

 pound. In the Americas, where, wiih the excep- 

 tion of the Hispano-American republics, no wages 

 until very recently have been paid to the laborer, 

 the cost is 3 cents a pound. The price for expor- 

 tation will average 3^ cents in the East Indies, 

 and 45 in the West Indies and other suijar-grow- 

 ing portions of America. These prices include 

 the profits of the native or resident merchant. 

 The average cost to the importer, exclusive of 

 duty is from 5 to 5h cents lor muscovado ancJ 

 brown sugar, and 7 to 8 cents for white. These 

 prices inchide freight, insurance, and commissions. 

 A'ld thereto ihe respeciiv-e custom house duties, 

 and we shall hnve the wholesale prices of every 

 country. Thus the duty in ihe United States is 

 2.} cents on brown sucar ; add this to 5 and 5|, and 

 we have 7-2 and 8, the averase wholesale prices of 

 New York, Boston and Philladelphia. The duty 

 on cl-ayed sugar is 3| cents ; add this to the above 

 price, and we have 10 to 12 cents, the ordinary 

 price of wliile clayed suirars. In France, the duty 

 on brown sugar is 4^ cents ; in England, it is 4f ; 

 coilsequently, in the markets of those countries, 

 ihey cannot be at less than f>om 9 to 10, and 10 

 to 11 cents respectively. The grocers put on 2 

 cenls more, so that the article costs to the consumer, 

 In the United Slates, from 9 to 10 cents, 

 France, 11 to 12 " 



England, 12 lo 13 " 



Hamburg-, a free port, 7 lo 8 " 

 Thus, sugar costs the consumer, in the Unilctl 

 States, doubte the piice of imporlalion ; and in 

 France and England, two and a half times that 

 price. In Prussia, the dutj' is the same as in 

 Great Britain ; but in Russia, according to the 

 |)tice the article bears there, it cannot be less than 

 7^ cents per pound. 



