The Hawaiian gazette., 1891-01-27

every reduction IN Its price not only IN
creases direct personal consumption, bu
also greatly stimulates old industrie:
and creates new ones in which sugar i:
used as raw material.
In 1881, the price OF sugar in Germany
the United States and England was 8,
and cents pound respectively. The
consumption per capita in those coun-
! tries was y, 81 and 671s pounds respect
lively. In 1856, with sugar but cents
cheaper, the British people, though
poorer and more economical than the
American, consumed "A pounds per
capita, while the American people con-
sumed but 81 pounds per capita the
year before. In the United King
dom, where, owing to the European
bounty system, the price of sugar
has been lower than in the United
States by about the amount of the duty,
not only has direct personal consump-
ton increased, but the jam and MARINA
lade trades have been practically created,
these commodities coming to be used to
some extent in place of butter by the
poorer classes; the confectionery trade
and preservation of fruits have been
| greatly stimulated, and sugar is used
more largely in biscuit making, brewing,
distilling, in mineral waters, and to some
extent as food for cattle, and there has
even been talk of using it as fertilizer.
Perhaps more marvellous results may be
looked for in the United States, where
wealth is greater and more rapidly in
creasing and the people are more extra
VACANT, and especially in our own mar
ket on the Pacific Coast where these
things are true in marked degree and
where also fruit preserving and other in
dusrries which require large quantities
of sugar are carried on so extensively.
On the other hand, it may be that COM
modlties in which sugar is used as a raw
material are manufactured to greater
extent in the United Kingdom than in
the United States to be consumed else
where; and also that the change in con-
sumption in the United States may be
rather to better than to more sugar. In
the decade 1S74-1SS3 (which period is
selected partly because there was during
il comparatively little to cause unusual
disturbance in the price of sugar, and
partly because it is the decade least fav-
orable to the point l wish to make) the
price of sugar in the United Kingdom,
where sugar was admitted duty free,
averaged lower than the price in the
United States by about the amount of
the duty, and yet during that time the
annual consumption per capita increased
over fifteen pounds there, while in the
United States it increased less than five
pounds. Should the consumption of
sugar in the United States during the
coming decade increase as fast as it did
in the United Kingdom during the de-
cade Just mentioned, we should expect
an aggregate increase of 750, 900 tons in
the annual consumption, as the result
solely of the reduction of price, suppos-
ing the price to fall by the amount of the
duty. This increase is about three
seventies of the present consumption
and is totally distinct from the increase
due to increase OF population, wealth, in
clination to indulge, etc. There can be
no doubt that it will have a very consid-
cradle effect in checking the fall ia price.
OF course, the price will not actually fall
but only tend to fall the full amount OF
the duty, and the demand will not act
ually increase but only tend to increase
by the above mentioned amount. These |
two tendencies will come into eQui- |
librium at some intermediate point.
a. OF the ultimate increase in supply. |
The gradual increase in consumption in |
the United States will tend to increase
price throughout the world and so to |
stimulate production. The presumption |
is that production is such that prevail
ing prices yield the ordinary fair return
on the labor and capital invested. |
Otherwise it would not have been car
ried so far Ii this presumption is also
the fact at present, the only result OF an
increased consumption would seem to |
be a further increase OF supply until
prices fall to point where only ordinary
profits will be realized, that is. to pre-
sent prices less the duty. But if there
have been special causes at work which
have led to overproduction and if these
causes are about to cease, the increasing
in the United States due
to the special event of removal of duties |
will tend rather to counterfeit contrac-
ton than cause an increase in produc-
ton; in other words, prevent rise
rather than cause a fall in price. The
most vital point to be considered, there
fore, is the effect of the new law on the
worlds production This involves an
inquiry into the present condition OF the
woJld's sugar industry, the causes that
have led to this condition, and the future
OF the industry.
In 1869, Germany imposed an excise
AK on beet roots used in the manufac-
.ure OF sugar. When sugar was ex-
ported drawback was paid on the then
nearly correct supposition that it took
.welve tons OF beet to make one ton of
sugar Producers, seeing their oppor-
unity, exerted themselves to the utmost {
n improving processes OF cultivation
Ind manufacture, and with great sue
,ess alter 1876 until, in 1886, one ton of
sugar was obtained from S.S tons of beet.
But as the drawback on ton of sugar {
continued to be the amount of tax paid i
IN twelve tons OF beet, there was practi- s
ally paid on each ton exported a bounty {
quail to the tax paid on 80 tons of beet.
This clear bounty amounted for num-
yer of years previous to 1889 to seven or c
light million dollars year, or seven or Z
light dollars ton on the entire produc- G
ion, which increased from 200, 900 in
$40 to l, 155, 900 tons in 1885, or nearly
ix-fold. Other European countries felt
constrained TO follow Germany's exam /
lie and, in 1884, France levied an excise t
ak on beet roots and paid drawback e
n exported sugars on the supposition
hat beets Welded 515 per cent of their |