Taxes — Monopolies — Poverty 



to an extent many times in excess of economic 

 requirements, a serious waste of capital and of 

 administrative expenses, which ultimately falls 

 on the consumer, or at any rate tends to the 

 impoverishment of the community. 



The growth of sugar-cane, and the manufac- 

 ture from it of sugar and alcohol, offer a still 

 more noteworthy example of the effects of 

 State control of commerce. The industry is 

 one in which many thousands of people are 

 directly or indirectly interested, and having 

 been for some years in a state of intermittent 

 crisis, arising from differences between the 

 manufacturers and the Government, offers a 

 staple subject for conversation in the island. 

 Stand on any eminence in the neighbourhood 

 of Funchal at this season of the year, when the 

 crop is ripe for cutting, and you will see miles 

 and miles of sugar-cane extending from the 

 seashore up the mountain slopes. This cane is 

 mostly bought by an English firm long estab- 

 lished here, and sugar is manufactured from it 

 in a thoroughly efficient mill, equipped with 

 the most modern machinery ; yet when you go 

 to buy sugar in the shops you are charged 

 sevenpence a pound for it. This astonishing 



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