76 TIMEHRI. 
who, controlling almost the whole of Europe, shut out 
British sugars, They thought that the situation might 
be improved by permission to export to the United 
States and to use sugar in distilleries. 
Things began to look better as NAPOLEON’S fall ap- 
proached. In 1812 sugar went up, and for a short period 
prosperity was restored, the British Government doing 
but little to promote this end. But, cotton never re- 
turned to its old price, with the result that sugar came to 
the front more and more, Coffee also was in a similar 
position, and no doubt would have gone out of cultiva- 
tion had it required planting every year. 
The downfall of cotton was most disastrous to those 
concerned in its planting. Three-fourths of the coast 
estates were abandoned altogether and have remained 
uncultivated ever since. All that long stretch between 
the Berbice River and the Corentyne, as well as the 
Mahaicony Coast, once glowed with the flowers of that 
handsome shrub, and some cotton estates turned into 
cattle farms on the East Coast have remained uncultivated 
since its downfall. Berbice suffered more than Demerara, 
as may be easily seen from the number of abandoned coast 
plantations. The Governor and some Members of the 
Council, as well as many others of less note, were obliged 
to compound with their creditors. Between the years 
1809 and 1824, one hundred and eleven cotton estates 
were given up and only fourteen of these were replaced 
by sugar. 
The ultimate result was that cotton was given up 
throughout the West Indies and that the British manu- 
faéturer became dependent on the Southern States. 
What happened during the American Civil War should 
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