The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-16 00:00:00

PRICE OF SUGAR.

EFFECTS OF MONOPOLY.
.1 ONDON, SEPT. 16, 1842.
The following average prices, exclusive *of duty, of
brown or Muscovado British Sugars, will be pub-
lished in the Gazette of this evening :

West India 365, d.
5i per cwt.
East India 3B 101
Mauritius 33 6::
The total average price of the three description's is
365. 33d. per cwt.

The actual weights of Sugar sold on account of the
importers, in the week ending the 13th inst., accord-
ing to the returns made upon oath by the Sugar bro-
kers, in conformity with the Act of Parliament, and
on which weights the above prices are computed, con.
sistedof 38,515 cwt. West India, of 1,109 cwt. East
India, and 4,672 cwt. Mauritius.
Foreign brown or Muscovado Sugars may be bought
at 14s. per cwt., and upwards; that of a quality equal
to the average quality of West India 16s. 6d. ; Dutch
Refined Sugar at 225. 6d ; and Foreign Molasses at
7s. per cwt. This nation is therefore fleeced by the
monopolists to the tune of 20s. per cwt. When will
justice be done to our industrious consumers.
It has been objected to the remarks made in our
Sugar article of last week, that the mode of reducing
wages in the West India Colonies therein suggested,
would, if carried out, throw half the estates out of
cultivation, to the utter ruin of their proprietors.
That this inference can be drawn from what was
stated we totally deny; we guardedly said that the
exhausted lands should be thrown out of Sugar cul-
tivation, and we also stated that such land might be
advantageously tilled for provisions. Let any disin-
terested person take up the list of provisions annu-
ally imported into the different West India Colonies,
and he will find the quantities so purchased would
require nearly all the land on which the Sugar cane
had eeased to be grown barely adequate to the pro-
duction of them. Again, supposing there should be
some land to spare, after a sufficient number of acres
had been laid down for provisions would
not such spare land be easily made to
, produce coffee, pimento, or cocoa ? each crop
of those articles not requiring more than one-half the
strength of labour which the cultivation of the cane,
and the after process of boiling the juice down to
Sugar does. The objection raised by the West Indians
in this respect resembles the complaints of those land-
lords at home, who argue as though land thrown out
of wheat cultivation by a free trade in corn would be
condemned to remain untouched. They would maintain
that it is inconvertible to any other purpose. Sheer
nonsense. Again fault is found with the number of
negroes supposed to be employed on a hundred acres
of land ; this is unreasonable; for we never professed
to be accurate in that matter ; on the contrary, we
gave it as a hypothetical statement. All we sought to
do was to show the proportio'ns of labour required for
good and for bad land. It cannot be denied that
exhausted soils will require the wcrk of three
negroes to the one employed on good land,
and that with that additional strength the
Sugar, raised on the bad ground will prove
less •in • quantity and superior in quality to that
raised on good land ; furthermore it cannot be denied,
that, with the aid of ordinary farming implements,
the labour of one negro will suffice to till the land
for provisions where the services of six are wanted
for cultivating the same kind of land for the Sugar
cane, and afterwards make the Sugar. Whether,
therefore we had said 150 to 50—or 3 to I—or
whether we had said 150 to 25,--or 6tol, is a
matter of indifference ; the Proportions remain the
same. Having explained thus far, we commence, ac-
cording to promise, an examination into the charges
of ten shillings per cwt., which accrue after the Sugar
is made in the colonies. The usual charge for a hogs-
head which will contain 14 cwt of Sugar is about
14s. sterling, being a charge on the Sugar of Is.
per cwt. By packing the Sugar in mats, as the
' Mauritius planters do, five-sixths of the shilling might
be saved ; three mats may be made from rushes by
the infirm and the women on the different plantations,
should these rushes •not grow spontaneously ; there
will be found on most of the estates land only fit to
grow them, which may be occupied in producing the
quantity of rush necessary for bag-making; moreover
the sugar brought in mats rarely, or ever, loses by
drainage during the long voyage from the Mauritius,
whereas a hogshead of Sugar will lose in weight
281hs. by drainafie, on the shorter voyage from the
Ilrest Indies. 1 enpence per cwt. may then be saved
in the package, and this, too, without taking credit for
a fraction for the value of the Sugar saved by the
drainage. With regard to the charge for freight, &c.,
of .ss. per cwt., we entertain a strong opinion that if
two or more proprietors, whose lands are contiguous,
were to advertise for tonnage, they would readily ob-
tain a ship whose owner would undertake to have per-
formed all that is now done, and bring the Sugar
home for 50s. per ton ; the proprietors saving by such
an arrangement 2s. 6d. per cwt. In this enterprise,
howeVer, it cannot be concealed the proprietors would
have a difficulty to encounter from encroaching on a mo-
nopoly which works under the protection of their own,
namely, the West India shipping interest. Nothing
but firmness and determination on the part of a com-
bined body of proprietors could burst the bonds of
this evil ; once broken through it would soon perish.
The dockage and management prior to the sale of the
Sugar form the next item, set at 4s. per cwt. Con •
sidering the security afforded, and the services ren-
dered' by the docks, so much of the charge as relates
to them is by no means out of the way ; but for the
costs of management, which are here mixed up with
the dock charge, they are excessive, being equivalent
to 6 per cwit. on the price of the Sugar before charges
accrue, or 3 per cent, upon the duty paid price of it.
Many brokers in and out of the Sugar market may be
found who would gladly manage the whole affair for
one per cent. on the duty paid price, and who are only
restrained from applying to the owners of the Sugar
by the fear of giving offence to the West India mer-
chants, whose servants they are. Supposing the
duty paid price to be ,sixty shillings per cwt.
the brOker would transact the business for one per
cent., or 7d. per cwt., yielding a clear gain to the
proprietors of Is. 2d. per cart Thus, taking these
reduced charges together, a saving of 4s. 6d. out of
the 10s. is. attained. • If, then, the entire mode re-
commended were carried out, the cost of the Sugar,
that is, growing and making it, would be 6s. 4d. per
cwt., and the charges of bringing it to market ss. 6d.,
in all 1 Is. 10d., and three eleven shillings and ten-
pence would yield the proprietors as much profit as
they now derive from 355. per cwt.; the consumers,
whose interests are rarely consulted by the Legis-
lature, or noticed indeed unless for the ulterior
Sugar 57.
object of advancing the benefit of the monopolists,
would experience the gratifying
which knowledge
were buying and usinghad thatid they
per cwt. towards the maintenance of the revenue, for
375. per cwt., or after such Sugar had been refined, at
6d. per lb. for good lump,
3d. Per lb. f'or Bastard Sugar
and Id. per lb. for treacle; thus catering to the vari-
ous wants of the community at large, at
a cheaper
rate than that at which slave-labour Sugar could be
supplied, thereby effectually driving the Cuban and
Brazilian growers out of the British markets, an
eent which protection to the West Indians has sig-
nally failed to achieve. The West Indians have en-
joyed abundant opportunities for effecting the salu-
tary suggested for theirmode of general
tory
management, and they have allowed them to pass un-
heeded; it is, therefore, quite clear they require
gentle coercion, to compel them to adopt measures
which would be beneficial to themselves in every sense
of the word. Is it to be tolerated, that for the sake
of keeping the black labourers in prime condition,
by only working them on alternate days, or for the
sake of maintaining the white pri prietors in luxuri-
ens idleness in this country, where they are neither
required nor desired, that the industrious classes
at home should pay an enormous excess of price for
Sugar ?—an article which has beco:ne absolutely ne-
cessary to their comforts! It might as well he pre-
j tended, that because the black labourers only choose
Ito work one day in the week, and the wnite proprie-
tors choose to drive six horses in lieu of a pair in their
carriages, • besides wofully neglecting their affairs in
the Colonies, that the people of this country ought to
• pay double what they are now paying for Sugar—as
continue the present course. The gentle coercion
necessary to drive the West Indians into industrious
and economic habits—habits which will compel the
whites either to reside on their estates, or transfer
them to. others who Will—and the blacks to daily work
for daily bread, is tit admit foreign Sugars to an ac, ,
tine competition in the British markets, with those
I propped up by monopoly. The West Indians, if they
choose to follow the course pointed out for them,
' have the power of driving their rivals out of the field
by underselling them.

" DOWN CORN, DOWN HORN.--This proverb has
begun ty be realised. At Bristol. within the last few
deys, seconds bread has been reduced to 60. the 41b.
ipp,fi and but*F3' p3e4 to 61(1, per 10,

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