The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-28 00:00:00

man NT LNG EDITION,

PRICE OF SUGAR.

EFFECT OF MONOPOLY.
A Table showing the ex duty price of West India sugar.
Mincing-lane, and comparing the same against that of forte
sugars : London, May 28, tete,

" Per s
tie
The Gazette of this evening will quote the average a. ,
price of West India Sugar, at
39
***irn; The actual quantity of West India sugar sold *by the
rosters, in the week ending the 25th instant, sword.;
to the returns made upon oath by the West India sugar bfeh
kers, in conformity with the Act of Parliament, and on wb
quantity the above price is computed, consisted of 1,264 hh
106 trs. and 210 barrels.
Manilla sugar of good quality is actually unsaleable at 2ti
per cwt., and yet that price is now quoted in the abfenceb,
sales as the nearest to its value ; the public will therefortL
serve that it is 20s. per cwt. cheaper than the average of Wee
India sugar. For this enormous differential price the peo4o
have to thank the majority of 36, and they will not fail to,.st
so when they meet the Members who formed a part of tp""sc.,
factious majority, face to face, upon the hustings. The sssr
count is very short. One year with another a duty of 24s.ii0f;"0
cwt. sields a revenue of about four and a half mil's,"
stealing; 20s. per cwt. on the like quantity amounts, there7ti,
to 3.600,000/. Now, this tremendous sum, more than ego,
valent to meet the deficiency in the annual revenue, is
stracted from the pockets of the indhstrious classes, and trP;„
ferred to the pockets of a small, though influential, knot dolt),
dulent monopolists, under the pretence that such a legal rob
bery is necrssary for ear. ying out the great measure of einaro,
pation. if by that expression the monopolists mean thew
motion of the welfare of the black population in our
...ht
India plan•ations, we denounce their plea as downy
knavish cheatery, for the stimulus given by this exces!iveP°3o,
of money to hard labour is abundantly testified by the &Too
tion made in the liouse of Commons by the West Is isf
that they would export to the United Kingdom this 7A
120,000 tons of sugar, which is equal to the weight theYros,
to export in, to them, the palmy days of slavery.
rid,
it most be esinent to the apprehension of all the cf°,nitl
that to raise and stake 120,000 tons of sugar n7irs
require precisely the same quantum of labour
~...0
one year as in another; and that therefore the neg. 4, ss
are made, by hook or by crook, to toil ins;hea
laboriously now that they are emancipated as they did
at
they were in a state of slavery ; it follows, consequently, .sod
if the British people are anxious to increase the comforts !it.,
promote the civilization of the negroes—they ought rater
discourage the cultivation of the sugar-cane, and not stisnu,at
it by a lavish premium of 20s. per cwt.
There are very few estates in the West Indies, w"100
offered for sale, would fetch ten years' purchase.
computing the whole annual produce of our West India l▪
it
sessions, by the foreign value of the different articles, that
to say by the price at which we could, buy them from fnr„gst
countries, and that too without importing an ounce of to
raised by slave-labour, we arrive at the amount, in Viet
numbers, of five millions sterling ; granting all the hob
India estates to be worth ten years' purchase (Lold
they certainly are net), the purchase money 1:,-60.
be fifty millions sterling. Fifty millions would t"of
fore amply suffice t r compensate the whole boalcie,
proprietors, supposing they were to be violently
priced of their West India property. Fifty millions *
and 1▪
i•
have, within these last ten years, been laid to them by the 7_,
tish nation. First, there is the donation of twenty milli°lo
then the proceeds of their monopoly, which, taken at tile
rate of four millions, gives forty millions—together sizty s.
lions. If, therefore, the West India proprietors were _oa,
dispossessed to-morrow, they would have received from the do
tion ten millions sterling more than their whole West •
property is worth.