for every ton of roots or cane which it works every year. There are in France 339 factories, which work about 8,000,000 tons of roots. The value is therefore estimated at 8,000,000 × 40 fr. = 320,000,000 fr. They have consequently received 238 per cent. of their estimated value during a period of 16 years. The French taxpayer has also to pay for the benefit of cane sugar produced in the colonies, and owing to the law of 1897, which granted a détaxe de distance, sugar from the West Indies and Réunion are drawn to France instead of being left to their natural outlets. In 1899-1900, 8,348,000 fr. were paid in bounties, and 2,300,000 fr. as détaxe de distance; it makes more than a total of 10 millions. Colonial manufacturing plants work some 1,250,000 tons of cane, yielding 10 per cent. of sugar. Therefore their value is 1,250,000 x 40 fr. = 50 millions of francs. During the last 16 years French taxpayers have thus paid about 150 millions in order to foster the artificial and stationary production on a capital which does not amount to 50 millions. All this legislation is a kind of machinery bent upon increasing production. But those engaged in industries do not produce for the sake of producing, but they produce to sell. Now, while French legislation induces sugar manufacturers to manufacture, it closes the door to an important outlet for his goods, by placing on the sugar for home consumption a duty which is intended for the payment, to a very large extent, of production and export bounties. IV. The Sugar Industry in Germany, Austria-Hungary, WE will take the following particulars from a pamphlet published last December by M. Louis Grandeau, in the Journal de l'Agriculture pratique. For the past half-century the production in Germany, taking the last season of every decade between 1850 and 1900, amounted to: German production is thus shown to be much greater than that of any other country. During the year 18991900 there were in Germany 399 sugar factories, 48 refineries, and 6 factories for the extraction of sugar from molasses. The total production was 1,795,479 tons against 1,722,429 in 1898-99. They worked 12,439,000 tons of roots, the product of 426,732 hectares. The price per 100 kilog. of roots delivered at the factory * Bulletin de statistique du ministère des Finances, février, 1901. fluctuated between 2 fr. 19 and 2 fr. 80, the general average price being 2 fr. 29. The great progress made in Germany in the cultivation of beetroot has been almost exclusively in regard to the increase of saccharine richness, which amounts to 14 to 15 per cent. of the weight of the roots for an average year, and to 17 per cent. for a favourable season. To increase the yield of roots per hectare is the aim pursued by German agriculturists. In the best year (18821883), a yield of 34,000 kilog. per hectare on an average was obtained throughout Germany; while in the worst season, that of 1879-80, the average yield was only 25,200 kilog. per hectare. In 1899-1900, the average yield was 29,200 kilog., being 700 kilog. per hectare more than in the previous year, while the quality itself was better than in 1898-99. To obtain 1 kilog. of raw sugar, only 7.37 kilog. of roots were used in 1899-1900, whereas 7.48 kilog. were necessary in 1898-99. The three classes of sugar indicated by the letters a, b and c, were not exported in 1899-1900 to fully the same extent as in 1898-99; this refers especially to exports to Great Britain, although exports to America increased sensibly. The total exports were 499,603 tons in 1898-99, and only 485,935 tons in 1899-1900. In Austria-Hungary, 350,000 hectares were under beet cultivation in 1899, with an average yield of 26,820 kilog. roots per hectare, yielding sugar to the extent of 11 to 12 per cent. Dividing the total weight of sugar produced by the number of hectares given to the cultivation of beetroot, we obtain : The production in Austria, which was below 300,000 tons in 1874, rose to 740,000 tons in 1889-90, and to 1,120,000 tons in 1899-1900. Austria's production is therefore one fifth of the total beet sugar production of the world. In Russia, where the production in 1889-90 amounted to 448,000 tons, not less than 900,000 tons were obtained in 1899-1900, and Russian production consequently amounts to one sixth of the total European output. In 1899-90 Belgium's output was 209,000 tons, against 300,000 in 1899-1900. V. Comparison of the Bounties. We have thought it useful to show in one single table the premiums on manufacture on native sugars and the déchet colonial on colonial sugars, so that we may see, at a glance, what the sugar industry costs the French taxpayers and consumers. E Tons. Tons. Tons. Sugar. Sugar. Sugar. Tons. Francs. Francs. Francs. Francs. Francs. 5,977,955 25,800,223 6.92 6.23 12.63 11.37 16.96 11.08 9.97 885,483 79,979,514 10,221,296 90,200,810 11.32 10.17 35,810,468 9,199,978 44,010,446 6.21 5.59 744,525 41,331,640 5,355,244 46,686,884 6.96 6.26 696,931 30,571,415 7,425,800 37,997,215 6.05 5.45 694,514 32,717,146 6,441,082 39,158,228 6.25 5.63 883,644 45,938,865 5,773,807 51,712,672 6.50 5.85 787,148 47,880,301 7,482,871 55,363,172 7.81 7.03 8,879,513 52,225,139 6.70 6.03 6,398,459 67,735,335 8.17 7.35 931,213 1,071,310 64,868,055 8,415,980 73,284,035 8.74 7.87 74,893,358 8,348,654 83,242,012 8.63 7.77 |