GROWTH OF THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY. 89 



these new conditions the production of beet-sugar in continental 

 Europe has doubled in the last decade ; and, after the home popu- 

 lations are supplied, the surplus is exported to Great Britain and 

 the United States, reducing the price of sugar in the markets of 

 the world more than fifty per cent. 



The sugar-refineries of this country use the beet- and cane- 

 sugar indiscriminately in the manufacture of the block sugar of 

 commerce, and the family grocer sells the imported refined beet- 

 sugar at a price from twenty -five to fifty per cent above the price 

 of cane-sugar. 



Before our late war, Louisiana produced more sugar than Ger- 

 many ; and although the beet-sugar industry in the latter country 

 was greatly stimulated by the high prices of sugar prevailing, in- 

 cident to the entire destruction of the cane-sugar industry of the 

 United States, yet as late as 1875 the empire produced only twenty- 

 five hundred tons, while for the year 1888 a production of one 

 million three hundred thousand tons of sugar and saceharine re- 

 sultants is recorded. 



If the increasing production of continental sugar continues 

 in the same ratio as in the past, it needs no prophet to foretell 

 the future of the cane-sugar colonies. Even now the English 

 market can not afford to take colonial cane-sugar, although it is 

 admitted free of duty. The English refining factories, which rep- 

 resent an investment of fifteen or twenty millions of dollars, and 

 have hitherto supported a large population of wage-earners, are 

 being closed, from the competition with continental sugar. 



These questions are attracting the attention of all the govern- 

 ments of Europe ; and while a number of members of the British 

 Parliament tried to find compensation for the losses of the cane- 

 sugar colonies, and the destruction of the British sugar-refineries, 

 in the circumstance that the consumers of sugar in Great Britain 

 saved fifty-five millions of dollars annually, in the reduced cost 

 of an article of prime necessity of which the consumption had 

 increased thirty-three per cent within a few years ; yet an inter- 

 national congress was determined upon, for the purpose of doing 

 away, if possible, with all bounties on sugar manufacture. 



This grave question was presented, in all its bearings, to the 

 Parliaments, Finance Ministers, Boards of Trade, and Chambers 

 of Commerce of many of the Continental Governments, but at 

 the gathering in London the proposition met with little or no 

 favor. 



After the adjournment of the congress the German Empire 

 announced a new excise duty, which took effect last August, 

 involving all the principles of the old duties, and increased the 

 " material and consumption " tax on beets to three cents per pound 

 on sugar as against two and a half cents per pound previously, 



