The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-07 00:00:00

PRUSSIA.

In the sitting of the Prussian National Assembly
on the 2d instant, the report of the central section
upon the proposed law for the augmentathn of the
duties on home-made sugars and brandies was laid
before the House. The project, consisting of two
articles, runs thus :—Art. 1. The duties on beet-made
sugar shall be augmented, on and from the Ist Sep-
tember instant, to 2 rix dollars per cwt., and to 3
groschen per cwt. on all red beet grown for the manu-
facture of sugar. Art. 2. The duties on brandies
shall be augmented from 2 to 3 groschen upon each
20 quarts, and from 1 groschen 8 pfennings to 2 gros-
chen 6 pfennings upon brandies made in country dis-
tilleries.

Brandies not made of mealy substances not to be
affected by this law.
The report terminated by proposing the rejection
of both articles, on the ground of their extreme detri-
ment to the agricultural interests, and of their corn-
parative insignificant advantage to the State, the
proposed increase being calculated not to produce
more than 120,000 rix dollars. The report.
which is of great length, is drawn up in a protective
and anti-free-trade sense. It combats the statistical
details drawn from DIETRICI'S tables, and brought
forward by Government in favour of the project.
Some of these details are not without interest. Ac-
cording to them it appears that foreign sugars being
taxed at four rix dollars more than beet, that is, five
instead of one rix dollar per cwt., and the produce of
the latter being about 281,692 cwt., there is a loss to
the state of 1,120,784 rix dollars; that the consump-
tion of raw sugar in Prussia and the Zollverein states
had increased between 1822 and 1845, from
171,130 cwt. to 1,502,110 cwt., or ninefold,
whereas the population of Prussia, including the
Zollverein population, had only augmented from
about eleven to twenty-nine millions, or little
more than two and a half fold. That, as a
proof of increase of consumption by diminution of
duties, it is indisputable that when the duties on
coffee were reduced in 1784 from 6 groschens to
3 groschens per lb., the excise increased from
300,000 to 500,000 rix dollars; that since the intro-
duction of beet sugar the prices had fallen from
30 to 18 rix dollars, and in lieu of losing, the State
had considerably gained, as the duties on foreign
sugar had augmented between 1837 and 1845 from
4,300,000 to 6,608,000 rix dollars, an increase of 2k
millions. Dietrici estimates the consumption of
sugar to have been 3 41-100 lbs. per head in 1837,
and 5 16-100 lbs. in 1845, a proof that competition
and diminished prices have augmented consumption
The report declares that the difference of duty be.

tween home and foreign sugar cannot be taken as
a basis of comparison, as the loss, by inferiority of
syrup, makes up the difference. The average quan-
tity of beet grown in the Saxon (Prussian) districts
is estimated at 130 per cwt., which at 3 groschens
the cwt., would produce 13 r.d. tax, a ruinous tax,
according to the report. The average produce of a
sugar manufactory to set down at 3,000 cwt., hitherto
giving 3,000 r.d., but to be increased to 6,000 r.d., an
increase that would force half the manufacturers to
shut up their works, and thereby throw out of em-
ployment an immense number of hands. The report
on the Brandy Bill contains no statistics ; it is filled
up with reasonings to prove that home-made brandies
so closely connected with the culture of potatoes, and
thence with the vital interests of landowners and

peasants, should be protected; and moreover adds