THECUBAREVIEW 29 



THE SUGAR INDUSTRY 



THE WORLD'S TRADE IN SUGAR 



By John J. Macfarlane, in the Tea and Coffee Trade Journal 



This is an interesting historical sketch of the sugar industry, which also gives the latest 

 statistical information relative to the production and consumption of this important food 

 element. The historical feature is briefly dealt with as follows: 



"Sugar was not known as an article of commerce among the Greeks, and it is not mentioned 

 in the Bible, showing that it was not known to the Hebrews. The sugar cane is beheved to 

 have grown wild in India, and while no reference to sugar can be found to 300 A.D., there is 

 no doubt that the juice of the cane was in use long before that period. The art of the evapora- 

 tion of the juice to a solid substance is an Indian invention of about the seventh century, and 

 was spread all over the then known world. The Arabs and Egjrptians prepared candy at an 

 early date by crystalizing the sugar obtained from the pressed cane. 



"The introduction of the use of sugar into Europe was largely due to the Crusaders, who 

 acquired a taste for it when they were in the Holy Land. On their return home their demand 

 for it resulted in creating a market for it in Venice. It was not long until the sugar cane was 

 cultivated in all countries bordering on the Mediterranean and the industry flourished up to 

 the fifteenth century After the discovery of America, the Spaniards and Portuguese, and 

 later the Dutch, French and English, introduced sugar cultivation into their colonies in the 

 West Indies and South America. 



"By the introduction of slave labor, which was practically unknown in Christian 

 countries prior to the fifteenth century, it became possible to produce sugar in large quantities, 

 so that it ceased being a costly product used only by the rich, and became cheap enough to be 

 an article of common consumption. The output, which formerly amounted to only thousands 

 of hundredweights, now increased to thousands of tons. 



"While it is possible to obtain sugar from the maple tree and sorghum sugars from broom 

 corn, as well as from fruits and some of the palms, the world's supply is obtained mainly from 

 two sources — the sugar cane and beet roots. Cane sugar is grown entirely between 30'^ north 

 latitude and 20'' south latitude. Beet sugar is a product of the Temperate Zone, and its culti- 

 vation is confined to Eiu'ope and the L'nited States. At present the world's supply is about 

 equally divided between cane and beet sugar. According to Willett and Gray, the world's 

 production of sugar in 1913-14 was 18,520,379 tons, of which 9,610,381 tons were cane sugar 

 and 8,909,998 tons were beet sugar. 



"The sugar crop of the world has increased from 4,412,000,000 pounds in 1865 to 40,711,- 

 000,000 pounds in 1913, and the increase during the last 10 years was 18,489,000,000 pounds, 

 or more than the increase in the preceding 35 years. The value of this crop, allowing 2 cents a 

 pound, would be $815,000,000, and when it reaches the consumer the value would be over 

 $2,000,000,000. 



"The use of sugar is increasing all over the world more rapidly than the population, and, as 

 a rule, its increase is coincident with an improvement in the material conditions of the com- 

 mimities in which the increased consumption occurs. Europe, with a population of 470,000,000 

 consmned 17,225,000,000 pounds in 1913, or 42 per cent of the world's consumption; the 

 U. S., with a population of 98,000,000, consumed 8,384,000,000 pounds, or 20 per cent, and 

 India, with a population of 315,000,000, consumed 6,725,000,000 pounds, or 16 per cent, 

 leaving about 22 per cent for all other countries. This does not include the quantities con- 

 sumed in the cane-producing countries, for which no statistics of consumption are available." 



Mr. Macfarlane, after giving the per capita consumption by leading countries, deals with 

 the rise of the beet-sugar industry in Eiu-ope, the production from the cane in India and Java, 

 and then gives the following account of the industry in Cuba: 



"The sugar cane was brought to Cuba by the Spaniards shortly after the discovery of 

 America, since which time it has always been cultivated, especially in the provinces of Santa 

 Clara, ]\Iatanzas and Oriente. The abohtion of slavery and the first war with Spain made an 

 end of the lucrative period of sugar cultivation in Cuba, and the second war with Spain almost 

 destroyed the industry. The output, which had reached 1,054,000 tons in 1894, fell off to 

 212,051 tons in 1897. Since its independence Cuba has increased its production of sugar untU 

 it reached 1,444,310 tons in 1907 and 2,541,000 in 1913. This great increase was due to the 

 preference Cuban sugar was granted in the United States tariff. It is claimed that the pro- 

 duction will be doubled in the next 10 years, as has been done during the last decade. There 

 is no doubt it would find a ready market for most of it in the United States. 



"Sugar is king in Cuba, being the most importantcrop. In 1912-13 the value of the exports 

 of sugar was $111,000,000, or 67 per cent of that of all the exports. Of this amount the value 

 to the United States was $100,000,000, to the United Kingdom $9,800,000, to Canada, $979,000, 

 to France $514,000, and to Holland, $204,000. The quantity of sugar exported in that year 



