THE FARMER AND AN EXPORT BOUNTY. 321 



yet left their people free to compete unhampered in the world's 

 market, for the sale of their surplus. This afforded a relief for 

 the time, but with the increasing outlet, new plantations and 

 new factories came into existence, and as one country after 

 another adopted the rebate, it was but a few years before all 

 were as badly off as ever. More sugar was being produced 

 than could be sold anywhere at remunerative prices. In 

 practice the internal tax had continued to be paid at the 

 factories as before, a part at first, and then the whole of this 

 tax being refunded on all sugar exported. 



At til at time it is probable tliat the beet-sugar factories 

 were at a disadvantage in competition with the tropical cane- 

 sugar producers, tlie process of extracting and refining the beet 

 sugar being the more expensive. At any rate, as the renewed 

 crisis approached in the beet-sugar countries, application was 

 made for actual bounties in excess of the internal tax, on all 

 sugar exported, and this finally was entered upon, one after 

 another, by all the beet-sugar countries, with the exception of 

 Russia, which stopped with the refunding of the internal tax. 

 This gave relief to the' countries adopting the plan, but only 

 for a brief time, for production quickly caught up with demand, 

 and competition resulted in giving away the entire bounty to 

 foreign buyers, and the sugar producers of Europe are just 

 where they were, in point of price, when they reached the limit 

 of home consumption. On all sugar which is consumed in 

 the country where made there is a possible profit to producers, 

 as it is protected by a high tariff", but most sugar exported is 

 sold positively below cost of production, the loss being made 

 good by the export bounty produced by general taxation. Of 

 course, also, this excess of supply reacts on the home market, 

 causing sugar to sell even there, for the most part, without 

 profit. In the meantime the other classes of these nations are 

 becoming tired of paying taxes whose only result is to supply 

 foreigners with sugar at less than cost of production,* and are 



* Great Britain is the largest buyer of sugar, and has for years got all her 

 sugar at less than cost. As a result, sales have increased there until the per 

 capita consumption of sugar is greater than in any other country in the world. 



21 



