Star.
London, England, 1823-03-18 00:00:00

EAST AND WEST I_VDIA RIVALRY.

- Sugar is produced in large quantities, both in our
West India Islands, and in our Empire of Hindostan.
The growers of the former had exclusively the posses-
sion of the home-market till towards 1792, when, in
consequence of the supply of sugar falling short for
Europe at large, by the devastation of St. Domingo,
the Directors of the East India Company imported
sugar from Hindostan. • Before that time sugar was
never thought of as an article of import from India:
and from not being specifiCally mentioned in the list
of articles imported from that country, was like other
non-enumerated articles, subjected to an ad valorem
duty of £S7 16s. 3d. per cent. In the iedr'lBll;
when the produce of the West India Islands was found
sufficient for the home consumption, the East India
Company ceased to import sugar. When the trade
.to India, however, was thrown open in 1813, it was
foreseen by the persons connected with the West India
trade, that the private traders tolndia would bring back
•
sugar as a part of their cargoes, and they therefore'
petitioned that higher duties might be levied on sugar
imported from the East than on that imported from
the West Indies. In consequence of this, 10s. more per
hundred weight was levied on the former than on the
latter. This higher duty was, however, imposed only
for a time limited, which expires on March 25th.
11Ir.Whitmore is, in fact, to bring forward a motion
on the subject on the 21st April; and the East and West
India interests are mustering all their forces for the
contest on that day. The East India Company are
not so forward in urging the repeal of this duty as
the private traders. The Company feels that it has
a monopoly of its own, and every argument it can
use against the West India interest may be applied
with greater effect against itself. The private traders,
on the other hand, attack the Company itself when
they attack the monopoly of the %Vest India planters.
Their object is to obtain the repeal of the extra 10s.
duty, imposed on East Indian sugar, while the object
of the merchants and planters connected with the li
West Indies, is to procure a continuation of this duty
for a still longer period. To this question, besides
these two parties, there is a third, that of the cori-
sumers. They appear to have no advocates, except
they find them in the Legislature, and except as the
interest of the East India parry is identified with theirs.

'fhe two rival parties have put forth many pam-
phlets in • support of their claims, and the object of
the present article is to give a short view of the prin-
cipal arguments used on both sides. We have bor-
rowed them entirely from the four following pam-
phlets recently published on this subject r--." On
Protection to West India Sugar;" Anonymous.—
" Suggestions on East India Trade; by J. Prinsep."
" Observations on the Claims of the West India Co-
lonists to a Protecting Duty," &c.—Anonymous.—
" A Reply, "cc. to vat ious Publications recommend-
ing an equalization of the Duties on West and East
India Sugar; by Joseph Marryatt, Esq. M.P."
Tae advocates for equalizing the duty; contend,
that the inhabitants of our Empire in India have
equal claims with the West India Islands on the pro-
tection of the Legislature: but at present we lay a
duty on their manufactures of 70 per cent. on their
agricultural produce or sugar, of more than 100 per
cent. when imported into Britain, while we in At on
British goods being imported into' India at 24 per
cent. We discourage both their manufacturing and
agricultural indust; y. But our subjects in India ale
one hundred times more numerous than our subjects
in the-West India Islands. The former are divided
into, classes, having various tastes, while the latter
consist of one-eighth Europeans and seven-eighths
negroes, in the most abject state of slavery. They
are Incapable of increasing their Consumption, their
numbers even do not iniaease, and a Inure extensive
trade than.we• now carry on with them cannot be

"TiTrinor- trffiffhtte hag, the natives 6 ~nc~id
have just become sensible of the value of Eurepead
products: Since 1815, the expoi-t of Woollen! tel.
India has increased 30 Or cent. and the eiport of
cottons, from 109.4861. in. 1815, to 1,120,2351. id
1822. They promise, there:re, to become very ex:.
ten.ave consumers of our wo,,leit and cotton goods:
But to buy they must sell ; and one of the principal
articles which they have to dis.:os:, of is sugar, and
the more we narrow the market for this in llitain
and in Europe, the less ale the natives of India ca.;
pable of purchasing our manufactures; By taking
their sugars, we should increase indefinitely the itiar-
Let for our own niantilactut es ; and as our consnity-
tion of their produce increases, their industry would
be stimulated, and a cpnstuntly growing market
would he opened for the productions of both coun-
tries. At resent the duty on sugar is so high, and
on East Judi, sugar so much higher than on West,
that, although the article is produced at a less cost
in Bengal than in Jamaica, it cannot be imported
into Britain, at present prices, without a loss. The
advocates for equal duties say, therefore, that the
higher duties on F.ast India sugars is an injustice to
the-natives of India, an injury to oar own manufac-
turer, and by checking the trade with India, impedes
the increase in the ber of our ships and seamen.
Sugar, they further say, is a nourishing food, the -
principal element in a great number of nutritive ar
tides and wholesome beverages; and is already con-
sumed in Great Britain to the amount of 140,000
tons annually? It can be imported frorri India at a
less cost than from the Colonies, and as it is a general
rule in rolitical economy, that the cheaper an article
can be produced, the more extensive will be its con-
sumption, it is supposed that much more sugar
would be consumed than at present, were its price
permanently reduced by the difference between the
duty on East and West India sugar. At present,
every family in the kingdom pays for the sugar it
consumes a certain sum more than the price necessary
to bring the sugar to market ; and it pays this sum
for the benefit of the West India planter and mer-
chant, who, notwithstanding this assistance, still
complain of being engaged in a losing concern: they
pay this sum also for the purpose of supporting the
slaves in the West Indies, their support being the
ptaweipal outlay of the planters; and so great was the
danger in one instance of their being starved, that
the Governor of a Colony was obliged to draw bills
on the Treasury to buy food for them. By securing,
it is said, the monopoly of the home market to the
West India grower, he is careless of economy—has
never troubled himself to introduce less expensive
modes of culture—and is himself ruined by want of
the wholesome stimulus of competition. Once' ad-
mit other sugars into the market on equal terms
with his, and he will see- the necessity of exerting
himself; and as the first effect of opening the market
would be to lower the price, it is impossible to say
how much the cost of producing sugar might WO,
mately be diminished. Sugar is a material in several
manufactures, and by thus keeping up its price for
the sake of the West India planters, we do what we
can to prevent those manufactures flourishing. . A
large capital is employed in refining sugar, in making
cordials, spirits, &c. and whatever keeps up the price
of the raw material impedes- the ese; tions of our pet,.
ple in these departments of industry,
It is further stated, that the low prices, of which
the Wet India planter complains, have not been ca used
by the quantity of East India sugar already intro-
duced into the home market, but by the quantities
of this at ticle brought to Europe from Cuba and the
Brazils, where it can be grown at a much less cost
than in our own islands, and which has consequently
lowered the price of the commodity generally thi Cough-
out Europe, and by its being allowed, that sugar
grown in islands which have been annexed by con.
quest to Great Britain, shOuld be imported like the
sugar of our old Colonies for home consumption.—
The whole quantity of sugar at present grown in
these Culonies. being more -than sufficient for the
home consumption, the surplus, the price of which
is regulated by what it will fetch in the markets of
Europe, regulates the ptice of the whole, and causes
the depressnm of the price of sugar, which the West
India planters vainly endeavour to keep up, by ex-
cluding the produce of the East Indies from the home
market. The capital vested in slaves and implements,
by our West India planters, was laid out when prices
of all kinds were much higher tharl.at present; and
the price of sugar cannot again rise to its former
sum without the Brazils and Cuba being swept from
the face of the earth; consequently, that it is impos-
sible for the West India planter to obtain that remu-
nerating price he asks for, and that by enforcing the
continuance ofthe higher duties on East India sugarb
he only checks our commerce with that country, with-
out in any material degree benefiting himself. The
higher duty, therefore, on East India sugar dimi-
nishes our commerce, injuresthe revenue, checks the
increase of our shipping, impedes the progress of our
manufactures, taxes the Public for the benefit of a
few individuals, is an injustice to our subjects in
India, but thens their industry, and stops them on the
road to civilization. For reasons such as these, the
private traders to India require that its sugar shall
be subjected to no more duty, in the home market,
than \Vest India sugar.
The advocates for the West India interest.deny, at
the outset, that the natives of India are to be con-
sidered in the same light as
.the people of the West
Indies. The latter they speak of as Colonists—as an
integral p2rt of the empire, while the former are a
sort of futeigners, over when we have warped do-
minion, and are bound not to protect but to plunder.
It is so far from being a Colony, that no English.
man is allowed to settle in it without an express per-
mission. It is governed by 7i company of private
traders. All the profits Vined' bf thedatlves of Hin.
dostan enrich that cOunt,ry, While the wealth of the
West Indies all flows into Britain. All the industry
.of
its inhabitants benefits our country. Notwith-
standing the greater number of the inhabitants of
India, the value of the whole'expoits to and imports
from that country and China falls thoit Of the value
of the exports to and juiperts from the-West ladies
by 1:1,524,914; and 156,424 mere towof British
shipping are employed in the West lndiitrirde thin'
in the trade to the East ladies and China. Tbe greatl4
crease of trade with which- the advocates for eqesdia..
ing the duties flatter themselves is •whoilynnagrmary;
and as this equalization worild injure the Weer -faidia •
merchant, it would ruin a certain and ta4ittleirik
-tor one less certain aud less valuable. The natiyes of

1