Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



result, to which natives and foreign residents 

 are inured, but which to strangers appears 

 incredible, is brought about in the first instance 

 by a duty of three hundred per cent, on imported 

 sugar, which of course raises the price here to 

 nearly four times what it would be in a free 

 market. But it is also influenced by other 

 factors. The sugar manufacturers have what is 

 practically a contract with the Government, 

 under which they are bound to purchase the 

 whole of the Madeira crop at a price which, I 

 understand, is about four times that current 

 for cane in Barbadoes, in consideration of which 

 they obtain, if not explicitly at least practically, 

 a monopoly of the business, and also may im- 

 port free of duty, or nearly so, molasses from 

 the West Indies in an unmanufactured state. 

 This provision appears to be of some value to 

 them in the ordinary course of their business, 

 and would naturally be of the highest impor- 

 tance in the event of a failure of the Madeira 

 crop. 



It might be supposed that this sacrifice of the 

 consumer would bring great profits (taken from 

 his pocket) to the cultivators. But such does 

 not appear to be the case. It may be that 



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