11 



portations would have disposed ministers to lend afavora- 

 ble ear to this demand, were they not prevented by mo- 

 mentous considerations which they dared not disregard. 



Having- said thus much as relates to the general pros- 

 perity of these undertakings in France, I will now pro- 

 ceed to mention under what peculiar circumstances they 

 seem more especially to thrive ; for this we must look to 

 three or four of her northern departments, not that these 

 are specially favored by nature, for the borders of the Loire 

 and several other rivers of that kingdom would seem to 

 offer equal if not superior advantages, possessing a soil as 

 fertile as that of the northern departments, at a price in- 

 comparably lower, and fuel in general at a more moderate 

 price, with a position, geographically speaking, nearly the 

 same. The advantage of the north then, here principally 

 arises from the circumstance that these manufactories were 

 there fi.rst established, that the whole population is disci- 

 plined to every trade and employment, required by the 

 manuf.icturer or grower of the beet, and these therefore 

 dispensed with the cost and trouble of procuring from a 

 distance the numerous tradesmen and laborers, necessary 

 to the efficient management of their undertakings; this 

 state of things is not without its evils, the most essential of 

 which is a tendency to concentrate in one spot benefits 

 which it would, (in a national point of view at least) be 

 desirable to see more widely disseminated. This objec- 

 tion is, however, gradually disappearing — new establish- 

 ments are springing up in different parts of France — the 

 local difficulties are wearing away, and in the mean time 

 the new manufacturer will receive a compensation for any 

 increased obstacles he may have for a time to encounter in 

 the cheapness of land and fuel, and a better market for the 

 purchase of the raw material. 



