Trade Relations with the United States. 307 
for the English market. If they found it more profitable 
to make yellow crystals for shipment to England, why 
do they not do so? 
Here I might be met by the question, why did the 
demand for the United States fall off in the first half of 
the present year, and lower prices prevail in that country 
immediately after the passing of the reciprocity arrange- 
ments, so that our planters found a better market for 
their yellow sugars in England ? This question is easily 
disposed of. In the first six months of each year, the Cuban 
crop is being reaped and sold ; this crop amounted in 
the present year to about eight times that of ours, and 
when American refiners can supply themselves freely 
with Cuban and Beet sugars, they naturally see no cause 
to pay us any more for ours. The Reciprocity Treaty 
is not supposed to be the panacea for high prices, but 
enables us to compete on equal terms with other pro- 
ducers. 
On the other hand our yellow crystals are quite a 
speciality in the English market, and to a limited extent 
sell at good prices, say at about the same as the refining 
crystals. I say they are marketable in limited quantities 
only, but if shipped in large quantities their value quickly 
recedes. 
It so happened that, unfortunately, the crop of the first 
six months of this year was miserably short, more than 
30 per cent below that of the same period of last year. 
If therefore the exports of that period to England 
shewed a surplus over that to the United States, it was 
simply owing to the fa6l that out of the small total the 
usual supply could find a better market in England, say 
15,000 tons distributed over a period of six months, or 
