26 T H E C U B A R E \' I E W 



Rcviez^', but \vc must take exceptions to the cost of producing Cuha centrifugals at 

 6s. to 7s. per hundredweight, say 6s. 6d.. equal to 1.42 cents per pound. While large 

 and small estates in Cuba vary in cost of production, the same as with beet factories, 

 yet the lowest cost of the large estates is understood to be 1.5 cents per pound up to 2 

 cents per pound for others. The average cost of production may fairly be estimated 

 at 1.85 cents per pound f. o. b. Cuba, or say 1.05 cents c. and f. Xew York; 1.85 cents 

 per pound f. o. b. Cul)a is Ss. 6d. ($2.07) per hundredweight f. o. b. Cuba, which we 

 must consider appro.ximately correct for cost of Cuba production, or say 9s. 3d. ($2.25) 

 per hundredweight landed in the United Kingdom. 



Beets at 8s. WV-2d. (below cost production) equal centrifugals at '.i.H') cents per pound 

 Xew York, while Cuba centrifugals at 2 cents per pound, cost and freight (above cost 

 production) equal 3.36 cents per pound Xew York, a difference of one-half cent per 

 pound, which difference in parity is usualh' made during the height of the crop. 



Finally ]Mr. Prinsen Geerligs published recently in the International Sugar Journal 

 an estimate of the cost of sugar production in Java. He bases his estimates on the 

 figures obtained by him in 1902 for 42 well-equipped factories. The average cost for 

 these factories was found by him to be i? 5s. 11 ^,-2 d. per metric ton, or 1.61 cents per 

 pound. While the aA^erage yield per acre has since increased, the price of many articles 

 and of labor has Hkewise grown. The average cost of raw Java crystals, basis 96 

 per cent, in bags or cases, delivered at the ports and including the cost of management, 

 cultivation, production, transportation by pipe line, depreciation of machinery, manu- 

 facture, freight to coast, maintenance and depreciation of factory and other structures, 

 but exclusive of interest on capital invested in the sugar factories and machinery, may 

 be estimated at 5.5 guilders per picul or 61.76 kilos, equal to about 7s. 6^-^d. per hundred- 

 weight, or 1.62 cents per pound. With freights of 20s. ($4.87) per ton from Java to 

 England or to the United States this would make 8s. 6%d. in Great Britam, or 1 13-16 

 cents per pound in X'ew York. With freights of 25s. ($6.08) the cost would be 8s. 9^/i;d. 

 in British ports and l"s cents at X'ew York. 



Cuban Ports Company Bonds and Receipts 



[From our London Correspondent] 



Recently Kleinwort Sons and Company as agents for the owners offered in London 

 six million dollars of 5 per cent first mortgage bonds of the Cuban Ports Company. 

 This concern has been formed to exploit a thirty-3'ear concession from the government 

 of Cuba, under which it is to carry out various schemes of harbor improvements at 

 Havana, Santiago and elsewhere, and to receive in return special dues charged on all 

 goods unloaded in Cuban ports. The dues are to be collected by the go\ernment, and 

 handed without deduction to the company, and on the basis of imports during the last 

 three years should, it is estimated, bring in at first $1,060,000 per annum, which is 

 three times the sum needed to meet the interest on the bonds now oft'ered, and on 

 the $1,000,000 also issued in Cuba. The bonds are redeemable by Alarch 1, 1936, 

 through a sinking fund, which commences on March 1, 1921, and will operate by pur- 

 chases in open market at or below 105 or by drawings at 105. The trttal issue of the 

 bonds can be raised to $10,000,000, but the company cannot draw dues to average 

 more than $1,500,000 per annum. The price of the Iwnds was 07 ^2, at which the jaeld 

 was about 5 1-6 per cent. 



Recent reports from Havana are to the eft'ect that at present the Ports Improvement 

 Co. will not receive any of the funds collected for tonnage fees until it has been cer- 

 tified that some important work has been begun or carried out.. The government was 

 to turn over to the company a large amount of these fees collected by the custom house, 

 but Secretary of the Treasury Martinez showed himself strongly opposed and his 

 motion at a cabinet meeting recently to suspend payment for the present was sustained. 



Minister John B. Jackson in a recent report says: 



It is stated that $230,230.96 was collected during the three months (February 20th 

 to May 17th) in which the law has been in force, and in view of the amount which 

 must now be refunded, it appears probable that the revenue received by the company 

 for the first year of its contract cannot amount to more than $800,000. 



This refund is the difference between the dues originally charged and those charged 

 after the reduction by President Gomez, which made the fees seventy cents per ton 

 of merchandise, being the product of the soil or industry of the United States of 

 America, unloaded from any steamer oj sailing vessel; 88 cents per ton of merchandise 

 of other foreign origin ; and 10 cents per ton of coal- 



