292 DATE SUGAR INDUSTRY IN BENGAL. 



These figures would seem to shew that the industry has not 

 increased very much in the above districts as a whole, since 1848. 



History of English Sugar Factories in Jessore. 1 



In the first half of the 19th century, the establishment of 

 European sugar factories gave a considerable impulse to the manu- 

 facture. The first English factory in Lower Bengal was at Dhoba 

 in the Burdwan district and was erected by a Mr. Blake in 1829. 

 When his profits began to decline he formed a company which pur- 

 chased the works from him for 4j lakhs.. The company had 

 factories at Kotechandpur where they set up English machinery and 

 also at Trimohini but failed about 1842. Kotechandpur then 

 passed into the hands of Mr. Newhouse who brought out the first 

 vacuum pan and Trimohini became the property of a Mr. Saints- 

 bury who worked it for three or four years and then closed it. The 

 factory of Chaugachha was established about the same time (1842) by 

 Gladstone, Wyllie & Co. of Calcutta. It was first under the manage- 

 ment of a Mr. Smith and afterwards of Mr. Macleod and it had 

 out factories for purchase at Keshabpur, Trimohini, Jhinger- 

 gachha, Narikelberia and Kotechandpur. It worked at a profit for 

 only a year or two and after that was discontinued. About 1850, 

 Chaugachha and Kotechandpur alone were in working order and they 

 only worked occasionally, while Tahirpur which was built about 

 1853 by Mr. Newhouse was worked for only two years and was then 

 sold and converted into a rum distillery. 



On the whole the history of the English sugar refineries is not a 

 record of success. The truth is that after they had given a 

 stimulus to the cultivation of the date palm, the trade which they 

 had created was appropriated by native merchants. The demand 

 for native refined sugar was greater than that for the first rate sugar, 

 manufactured by European means, and the Europeans consequently 

 lost the trade. ' 



The following few figures may give an idea of the extent of 

 the palm sugar industry in Madras. 



1 Taken from the Gazetteer of the J sore District. 



