PRODUCTION OF SUGAR. 407 



Last year, a lot of our best muscovado sugar was consigned to 

 Halifax, but did not find purchasers : nor is it to be expected that 

 even under the advantageous terms offered by Canada, Trinidad 

 sugars will find a market on the banks of the St. Lawrence. Let 

 the good folk of Trinidad yield to the encouragement offered, and 

 persist in their present policy ; then the only market which will 

 remain open to them will be that of Britain ; and the only pur- 

 chasers they will find for their protected article, will be the British 

 refiners. Now, ought we to expect better chances for our staple 

 articles ? Undoubtedly, if the consumption of sugar and cacao 

 increases in the world. The average quantity of sugar consumed 

 in Europe and North America may be stated at 51bs. per head ; 

 in England it is about 401bs., and nearly 321bs. in the United 

 States. Certainly, it cannot be expected that before many years 

 have elapsed, the average consumption will have increased to that 

 of England or the United States, but we may reasonably expect 

 that it will increase to 91bs. per head the actual consumption in 

 France ; in which case the production might be brought to 

 4,476,300,000, or 1,492,100,000 more than the present standard. 

 Cuba and Brazil will evidently contribute their quota to that 

 increase ; but the effective suppression of the Slave Trade must, 

 of necessity, check the production of sugar in these two countries ; 

 in addition to which, slavery itself is suspended above them like 

 the sword of Damocles, and if the hair by which it hangs is not 

 carefully severed by some philanthropic and prudent hand, the 

 dangerous weapon will be violently plucked down by the convul- 

 sive grasp of revolt. 



It will be a work of time ere the cultivation of the sugar-cane 

 increases on the neighbouring continent; inasmuch as it will 

 require time for the aggregation of a population sufficiently nume- 

 rous to furnish an adequate labour-power for its extensive culti- 

 vation. Our principal competitors will therefore be the isles of 

 the East. But not only are their lands in general less fertile than 

 ours, but we are closer to Europe, and closer still to the growing 

 markets of North America. 



As a consequence of the present low price of sugar, consump- 

 tion must increase, and a taste be created for that almost necessary 

 of life. Istly The peace which shall follow the present war will, 

 probably, have for result, an extension of commercial intercourse, 

 and the opening of the markets of the continent to colonial pro- 



