330 
Sugar-Beet CiiUiucdion m Andrid. 
beet was relieved of the payment of industrial taxes dui-ing a 
period of ten years, the manufacture of beet sugar became finally 
and firmly established in Austria. 
The first Austrian beet-sugar factory was erected at Do- 
browitz in Bohemia by Carl Weinrich, by order of Prince 
Thurn and Taxis ; in the same year factories were built in 
Moravia at Kirchwidern, in Lower Austria at Staatz, and in 
Galicia at Krzywczwyce, near Lemberg. The first undertaking 
of the kind in Silesia was in 1832 at Ober-Suchau.' Except 
the factory in Dobrowitz, none of those above mentioned are 
still in existence ; but they had many vigorous successors, and, 
according to the latest statistics, there were 215 factories at 
work, of which 13G were in Bohemia, 49 in Moravia, 9 in 
Silesia, 3 in Lower Austria, 1 in Galicia, and 17 in Hungary. 
The beets used for sugar weighed, in 1888, six million tons ; the 
sugar produced weighed 750,000 tons, and of this there was 
exported 450,000 tons.^ 
For a long series of years, a tax has been levied on sugar in 
Austria ; and the particular method of its being levied has been 
the subject of much debate and many changes. A law of 1865 
replaced a former system of duties on the actual weight of the 
beet by theoretically fixing the yield of the quantities of beet 
used. But it was found that the actual yield was often more 
than the legal yield, so that a quantity of sugar escaped taxation, 
and improvements in manufacture accentuated this advantage 
to the makers. 
Further laws were passed in 1878 and 1880, the last of 
which fixed an excise duty equal to 8fZ. per cwt. of fresh beet, 
and granted a drawback of about 10s. for every cwt. of sugar 
exported. 
The incidence of this duty gave rise, however, to dissatis- 
faction, and the two Governments of Austria and Hungary sub- 
mitted therefore to the Chambers, in 1887, a new law which 
' More detailed information as to the history and development of the 
Austrian sugar industry' appears in .a Pamphlet, entitled : The Technical De- 
rclojmient of the Sugar Industry in Austria, by F. Strohmer (Vienna, 1890), 
published by the " Ccntralvcrcin fiir lUihenzucher Industrie." 
^ Amongst other " .agricultural industries " of Austria may be mentioned 
47,708 distilleries, producing in 1888 nearly 20 million gallons of proof spirit ; 
100 makings, besides those at breweries ; and 1,835 breweries, 772 of which were 
in Bohemia. There were brewed in Austria in 18S8 very nearly 300 million 
gallons of that light beer so much affected by the population. Pilsen in llohcmia 
gives its name to a beer which has come to be regarded in England as typical 
of the beverage drunk in such quantities in all German and Austrian towns ; but 
most of the Austrian beers have a mild and soft taste, and Pilsener has ,a 
strong - almost mcdicin.al - bitter flavour, due to the far-famed S.aaz hops, grown 
in the vicinity. 
