SUEZ CANAL, THE. 



SUGAR. 



745 



sacrifices demanded, the scheme was broached 

 of a second competing canal across the isthmus, 

 constructed with English capital, and managed- 

 in the interest of English navigation. M. de 

 Lesseps averred, in reply, his exclusive right. 

 Projects of a ship-canal through Egypt by 

 way of Cairo, and of one through the Jordan 

 valley, failed to arouse practical interest. The 

 Lesseps canal route, through the Bitter Lakes, 

 follows a natural depression, and is the only 

 practicable one across the isthmus, so that a 

 second canal would have to be dug close be- 

 side the existing one. 



Provisional Agreement of the English Government. 

 The English Government, having strong mo- 

 tives to avoid giving fresh cause for irritation 

 to France, was the less likely to be influenced 

 by the chicanes of the steamship-owners, ani- 

 mated by private commercial considerations. 

 An agreement was reached between it and M. 

 de Lesseps, whereby it secured valuable con- 

 cessions to the ship-owners, and. arranged for 

 the enlargement or duplication of the canal, 

 but recognized the monopoly of the Universal 

 Company in the Suez route, and offered to 

 advance the 8,000,000 required, at 3J per 

 cent, interest. A storm of reproaches assailed 

 the Government for refraining from annulling 

 the franchises of the company in the interest 

 of English navigation, which furnished four 

 fifths of the Suez traffic. As enormous pecuni- 

 ary interests were involved, the subject was 

 fiercely agitated ; and the Government, in the 

 face of this opposition, reluctantly withdrew 

 the proposals, and suggested that M. de Les- 

 seps and the ship-owners come to an agree- 

 ment among themselves. 



The Ship-owners' Agreement. Such an agree- 

 ment was finally arrived at in the beginning 

 of December. The company promised to en- 

 large the canal or construct a second one, in 

 accordance with the report of a commission of 

 .experts, one half of whom should be English 

 engineers. In addition to the three directors 

 nominated by the English Government, seven 

 new English directors should be admitted ; mak- 

 ing ten Englishmen on the board to twenty-two 

 Frenchmen. These English directors are to 

 constitute an advisory board. The company 

 will open an office anu receive dues in London, 

 and largely increase the number of English- 

 speaking officials. The last sur-tax of 50 cen- 

 times disappears on Jan. 1, 1884, and pilotage 

 dues July 1st. All expenses from groundings 

 and other accidents, except collisions, or such 

 as are due to negligence, are to be borne by 

 the company. The company reduces the tran- 

 sit dues to 9 francs after Jan. 1, 1885, and 

 will divide half the profits in excess of 18 per 

 cent, with the ship-owners, in addition to the 

 abatement of 50 centimes. Each successive 

 rise in the profits is to be divided in the same 

 way, by reducing the transit dues for the next 

 year but one, that is, from the 1st of January 

 following the report, by the quotient of the 

 total tonnage into the moiety of the increment 



of profit. Above 25 per cent., the whole ex- 

 cess will be divided, until the transit dues are 

 reduced to 5 francs a ton. A reduction in the 

 tolls for ships in ballast to 7 francs had been 

 already made, Oct. 1, 1883. 



SI GAR. The importation of crude sugar 

 during the earlier part of the year 1883 was 

 lower than that of the corresponding months 

 in 1882, on account of the proposed change in 

 the duties. On June 1st the revised tariff came 

 into force. The new rate is as follows : 



All sugars not above No. 13 Dutch standard in 

 color shall pay duty on their polariscopic test, as fol- 

 lows, viz. : All sugars not above No. 13 Dutch stand- 

 ard in color, all tank-bottoms, sirup of cane- juice or 

 of beet-juice, melada, concentrated melada, concrete 

 and concentrated molasses, testing by the polariscope 

 not above 75 degrees, shall pay a duty of one and forty - 

 hundredths cent per pound ; and for every additional 

 degree or fraction of a degree shown by the polari- 

 scopic test, they^ shall pay four-hundredths of a cent 

 per pound additional. All sugars above No. 13 Dutch 

 standard in color shall be classified by the Dutch 

 standard of color, and pay duty as follows, namely : 

 All sugar above No. 13 and not above No. 16 Dutch 

 standard, two and seventy-five bundredths cents per 

 pound. All sugar above No. 16 and not above No. 20 

 Dutch standard, three cents per pound. All sugars 

 above No. 20 Dutch standard, three and fifty-hun- 

 dredths cents per pound. 



Molasses, testing not above 56 degrees by the po- 

 lariscope, shall pay a duty of four cents per gallon ; 

 molasses testing above 56 degrees shall pay a duty or 

 eight cents per gallon. 



This act led to examinations by the polari- 

 scope, and laboratories were equipped at the 

 sugar-importing ports. The method is quite 

 simple : 13*024 grammes of the raw substance 

 is brought into solution in a graduated 50-cubic 

 centimetre flask. When it is dissolved, a few 

 drops of lead acetate are added. Then the 

 solution is increased to exactly 50 cubic centi- 

 metres by adding water, well shaken and fil- 

 tered, and the filtrate is poured into the polari- 

 scope-tube. 



The receipts of sugar during 1882 and 1883 

 were as follow : 



