The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1910-12-18

ports to 1893. for which year they are
gwen at 4,l>6,9>2 plcuis which equals
261 $50 tons.
NhHchever figures are correct. and It
Is probable that those OF ST. Luzuriaga
are more nearly so than the one, from
Spanish records Ctbey agree with ex-
ports a. complied by the Chamber Of
Commerce when allowance is made for
local cou~umption), there can be no
doubt that that wear marked the high
est point of Development reached by
the sugar industry in the PHILIPPINES.
Immediately following this period a
number of causes combined to check its
development, important among which
was the panic and break in silver that
occurred in 1898. The manner IN which
the industry was adversely affected by
q financial upheaval on the other side
of The globe came about in this way:
Russell, Sturgis & Co.. a commercial
firm founded by Americans, had grown
to be one of the largest institutions
of its kind doing business in the
ORIENT. Their branch at Iloilo was ex-
tenSlVely interested in sugar and had
been instrumental to a considerable
degree in developing the industry in
Panay and Negros. 1t was her custom
TO make advances to planters for the
purchase of machinery and for planting
and cultivating crops, then take pay
ment III sugar after harvesting As they
were heavy exporters of sugar and this
system enabled them to control a big
proportion Of the crop, it proved highly
profitable, but at the same time made
it necessary for them to make very
liberal use of their banking credit, as
the capital required from one season to
another was naturally great When
the panic came It found them with as
sets that were undoubtedly ample and
good but entirely lacking the very es-
sential liquid quality which permits of
ready conversion. Banking facilities
were then controlled by British institu
tons who were influenced to call in
their loans by he great Barring failure
IN London and the fall in Silver-then
the money basis Of these islands. Rus
sell, StuTgls x Co. were not prepared 10
meet the demand and were forced into
bankruptcy. The planters who had de-
pended upon them for financial assist
ance were deprived of this support and
thus obliged to restrict their operations.
The depression in the value of silver
placed heavy burden of exchange on
the commerce of the islands thus re
duclng the market value of all export
products and increasing the cost Of
foreign goods. The result was evi-
denced in a falling off in exports of
sugar for 1894 of nearly seventy thous-
and tons or twentysix per cent.
1t was about this time that the beet
sugar industry was receiving attention
and government assistance in the Unit
ed States. That country had become a
large user of European beet sugar whieA
was imported at low cost on account Of
the export bounty it had receival fro n
the governments of the countries whore
grown. Recognizing the de>irab.rtv
of producing more of the sugar It was
consuming the United States was pay
ing bounty on the local prol1ct n
Guiding both the cane and bee rhis
later gave way TO a high protective
duty which i wholly effective for the
reason that large importatiohs Of sugar
are still necessary notwithstanding the
fact that production has recorded an
enormous increase under the stimulus
Of hgh prices
Beet sugar is turned ont by the mills
in refined form and, due largely to this