BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-03-19
lbO|isliDg Sugar Bountles.

Recent dispatches make it certain that
the International sugar conference has agreed
| - abolish all bounties, direct and indirected.
and to reduce the customs urax to q rate
st which the so called "Osrtep, or Sugar
Trust Of Germany, cannot exist. The exc
cution of this agreement will be placed |
under international control. bat it will not
60 into effect till September, 1908. 1t is
reasonably clear that this decision was has. |
tened BY intimations from the British Gov |
ernment that, unless the bounties on expor.
tation were abslshed, couatervailng duty !!
would be imposed upon the bounty-fed pro-
duct. Such q duty levied in Great Britain |
would take the entire profit out of the |
exports from the Continent.
Hitherto Great Britain has reinsed to |
take this step Her consumers have enjoy |
ed free breakfast table at the expense Of
the Continental taxpayers, and British ma
nutactursrs of preserves, jams, marmalade,
and confectionery have been able to distsn-
ce competition BY the help of the same ge-
nerous donors. It is not the custom of the
British public to fear Germans when bear
ing gifts, but the wall Of the West Indian
colonies has at last touched the heart of the
mother country. The sugar growers of the
Lesser Antilles and OF British Guiana have
suffered from the competition of the bounty
fed product Of Europe till they are ct the
last gasp. They must either adopt some
other means of earning livi' 4, or the com
lpetition in sugar growing NUT be put upon
the normal basis. II, as is imposed, Great
Britain in.imated her purpos- to adopt coun-
tervsiling duties, she did so in pity for her
West Indian colon:sts.
The German Government, too, will he
glad to be rid of the beunties, which have
been q sore burden to the budget, but Ehich
could not be thrown off while other countries
continued to pay them. II the sugar bounty
were new contrivance in the world,
nobody would expect such thing any mere
than bounty for shoemsking, or tailoring,
or plumbing. But it started without de-
sign, and grew by slow degrees, until it be-
came too strong for even the Government to
control. 1t began half q century or more
Isgo. The Government imposed . revenue
tax on beets of SO much per ton, and then
quite properly, allow ed drawback on that
lportion of the sugar which was exported to
foreign countries. The drawback was COM
puted on certain rate of yield from q ton
of beets, 80 that, if manufacturer shopld
buy one thousand tons of beets and export
his tax and of bis drawback would be EQUAL.
how to get double she quantity of sugar out
of each ton Of beets, then his drawback
would be double the amount Of the tax, aud
one half Of it would be bounty on exporta-
ton.
1t was in exactly this way that the bounty
came to lift its hydra head in the sugar
H. Il. e A. faI L. L..
an internal tax en- beet roots, or if the Gov
ernmsnt had advanced the tax in proportion
a. the yield of sugar increased, there never
wsuld have bssn any bounty on expectation.
Bat the Government did not do so. The
sugar makers either had 'pul." which
prevented an increase of the tar s'pari passu"
with the increasing yield of the beet, or, 40
is more likely, they persuaded the Govern.
ment that it would be great and glorious
thing to make Germany the center Of the
sugar trade of the werld, as they laye, in
fact, done. The situation in which the sugar
trade Of Germany now finds itself is that Of
. hot-house industry, that is about to have
its artificial shelter taken away, and to be
exposed to the competition which was necss
ssry to its health and which it ought always
10 have met.
STATISTICS OF the German sugar trade Tor
1901 show that the 800 sugar factories Of
the Empire produced 1873, ,1l8 tons of raw
sugar, and the AZ re6neries turned out
,O33, ,446 tons OF refined. All this OF course,
was made from beets, now grown on about
| 1, 100000 acres of farm land. The fetal |
outpu. was some 200, 600 tons greater than
In 1900, and the burden Of tue bo1uties
correspondiDgly heavier. Yet domestic 1
consumption actually fell of, showing how
true it 10 that, as Professor Sumner has
said, the bounty system works so that Ger
many has the manufacture, bat other ceus-
tries have tae sugar. II appears to be the
case that the more sugar Germany produces,
the less she has to eat. While the total
product increased 20O,OG0 tons in 1901,
the home consumption diminished by 78,OO0j
tops. II
What effect the abolition of bounties will
have upon the worlds price Of sugar 1t 10