286 DATE SUGAR INDUSTRY IN BENGAL. 



or 38,000 tons of gur. Two-thirds of this was estimated by Robin- 

 son to have been exported from Calcutta and the rest consumed 

 locally. Watt 1 also quotes 38,000 tons as the production of date 

 sugar in Bengal for 1847-8. Thus the production had quadrupled 

 in ten years. High prices ruled throughout this decade. 



The first European refinery in Bengal was established in 1829 

 in the Burdwan district, but owing to the differential duties on 

 sugars exported to Great Britain its operations were restricted to 

 very narrow limits until 1837-38. Encouraged by the equalisation 

 of the duties, competitors then appeared, principally in the vicinity 

 of Calcutta. Their proprietors were not slow to discover the good 

 qualities of date sugar as raw material for refining and they drew 

 largely from the Jessore and Faridpur markets. Supported 

 as they were by English capital they contributed in no small 

 degree to stimulate the cultivation. 



Under these encouraging circumstances it might have been 

 expected that date sugar production would have increased more than 

 the estimate had made it in 1848. Undoubtedly during the forties 

 many new plantations were set out, but for the first five years no 

 produce is obtained and the tree comes to full bearing only in its 

 eighth year of growth. We next come to the first great check 

 experienced by the cultivators. 



The principles of free trade were rapidly gaining ascendancy 

 in Great Britain and in 1846 Parliament enacted 2 in defiance of and in 

 contradiction to all its previous tendencies for half a century, that 

 in the article of sugar only, slave labour and slave trade should be 

 encouraged. Further that by a scale of duties gradually equalised, 

 the sugar produce of all the world by the end of seven years from 

 that time should be admitted to British consumption on equal 

 terms. As a consequence the English markets were inundated with 

 supplies of foreign sugars and towards the end of 1847 they and our 

 sugar colonies suffered a panic. Many a West India proprietor was 



l See Diet, of Econ. Prodts., Vol. VI, Part II, page 115. 

 s Robinson Prize Essay, 1858, page 9. 



