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RESULTS-PRODUCTION & CONSUMPTION.

I.

Production and Bounties in France.

THE law of 1884 had two objects in view-to increase the cultivation and the quality of the beetroot, and to develop the sugar manufacturing industry. Both objects have been attained; the law had even too much

The duty is paid on the raw material whose estimated

yield is far lower than the actual yield obtained. The result is as follows:

fr. 787,212,460

Total for the 16 seasons from which the excise service of 0 fr. 30 per ton of roots paid since 1887-88 has to be deducted, which for a total of 76,581,817 tons of roots for 13 years, gives

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...

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22,974,545

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fr. 764,237,915

The premium on manufacture paid from 1884-85 to 1899-1900 is

For the season 1899-1900, therefore, the quantity of sugar having had the benefit of reduced taxation, compared

with the total production, comes to 28.72 per cent. Calculated at the rate of 30 fr. per 100 kilog. for quantities subject to reduced taxation the average rebate amounts to 8 fr. 62 per 100 kilog. of refined sugar-taking into account the sugar which is found, at the rate of 14 per cent., in the molasses sent to distillers, agriculturists, or abroad. Analysing the above tables we find that :

1. The production in France between 1884-85 and 1899-1900 has risen from 272,962 to 869,200 tons, an increase of 220 per cent.

2. Since the third season, after the application of the law of 1884, bounties amounted to nearly 79 million fr. per year; the law which had established the scale of duties and premiums up to 1890-91 had therefore to be modified. Yet, three years afterwards, the bounties amounted to nearly 80 millions, and the law had to be modified again, or otherwise the whole of the duty would have been devoured by the bounties.

To-day the bounties have risen to nearly 75 million fr. It will therefore be again necessary to decide on a modification of the law now in force.

II.

Bounties on Colonial Sugar.

LE déchet de fabrication of sugar imported directly from French colonies into France had been fixed at 12 per cent. by the law of 1884; the law of 1886 enacted that this déchet de fabrication should be equivalent in percentage to the average surplus yield obtained in the manufacture of native sugar during the preceding season.

The Administration calculates herself the premium which is granted to sugar manufacturers in the Metropolis, making the colonial sugars benefit by it. Thus for 1899-1900 the quantity of sugar having received the

benefit of reduced taxation is 28.72 per cent. of the total output, and this is the figure at which the colonial deductions during the season 1900-1901 stands. The following table illustrates that correlation during the last few years:

The following are the importations of sugar from the French colonies from 1884 to 1900:

During the last three years the duty has been paid on

the following quantities in order to get the benefit of the

colonial waste :

There remains consequently in France about twothirds of the colonial sugars which overburden the Metropolitan production.

Imports of foreign raw cane sugars, which were 11,763 tons in 1885, and still as much as 34,950 tons in 1896, declined to 3,502 tons in 1898, to 2,113 tons in 1899, and to 2,235 tons in 1900.

III.

The Total Amount of Bounties and the Value of Factory Plants.

THE total amount of bounties paid by the French consumers to sugar manufacturers was 19,822,000 francs in 1884-85. During the ensuing period it rose to an average of 60 millions yearly; in 1898-99 it increased to 64,868,000 francs, and in 1899-1900 to 74,893,358 francs. From 1884 to 1900, 764 million francs were allowed to manufacturers.

The value of a factory which has been in operation for some years is estimated at the rate of about 40 fr.