58 ON THE MANUFACTURE OF BEETROOT SUGAR IN POLAND. 



The ordinary price of refined sugar, as sold in the Warsaw market, is 

 about tenpence per pound, and calculating a probable reduction of ten per 

 cent, in consequence of the great increase in the production, it appears that 

 the total value of the yield will be about £1,400,000, of which to the yalue 

 of one million will be for the consumption of Russia. 



The increase of this manufacture in the neighbouring provinces of Russia 

 has probably nearly equalled that in Poland ; it will be well, therefore, to 

 ascertain what may be the effect of the development of this manufac- 

 ture upon the foreign trade of Russia. 



Upon reference to the Reports of the Customs Department of the Empire 

 for the five years from 1853 to 1857 inclusive, it appears the sugar of all 

 sorts imported into Russia by its European frontier in 1853, amounted to 

 47,435, OOOlbs., of an estimated value of 4,936,560 roubles, almost entirely 

 in the form of raw sugar, through the Baltic ports. 



In 1854 this quantity was reduced to 40,822,0001bs., valued at 5,918,226 

 roubles, one-seventh of which was imported by the land frontier, by which 

 in 1853 there was no importation of sugar. 



In 1855 the import of sugar into Russia was again reduced, and only 

 amounted to 36,257,0001bs., valued at 5,208,486 roubles, more than nine- 

 tenths of which was imported by the land frontier. 



In 1856 the import trade of sugar into Russia appears to have resumed 

 the position it held previous to the war, having amounted to 48,092,0001bs., 

 of the value of 7,111,092 roubles, of which about two-thirds were imported 

 by the land frontier. 



The import into Russia for the year 1857 amounted to 59,150,9291bs., 

 valued at 8,904,044 roubles, almost entirely imported by sea. 



It will be seen, then, that the quantity of sugar, from the crop of 1858, 

 available for export into Russia from Poland, will be equal to two-fifths of 

 the whole of the stated import in the year 1857 from foreign countries. If 

 the increased production in the adjoining provinces be taken into account, 

 it may be assumed that the manufacture of sugar within the Empire would 

 nearly suffice, according to the scale of consumption of previous years, for 

 the entire supply of the country. 



As the calculated amount of home-produced sugar in Russia, in 1855, 

 amounted only to 41,876,0001bs., even after making full allowances for the 

 defective nature of the Customs' Returns, it will be seen that sugar is an 

 article of luxury, the consumption of which is exceedingly small in Russia 

 as compared with other European States, not amounting to one and a-half 

 pound per head of the population. 



From the slow progress made in the material development of the masses 

 of the people, it will probably be long ere the consumption of this article 

 will receive any very great development, and especially so as the large 

 interests, both agricultural and manufacturing, involved in producing this 

 article, and which have been fostered under a high scale of protective 

 duties, will operate to prevent the reduction in price which would imme- 

 diately occur if these duties were removed. 



