On the whole, therefore, we shall not perhaps be far wrong in estimating the consumption of exported colonial and tropical sugar as follows: The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Prussia, Austria, Hungary, and Austrian Italy, Antwerp Rostock, Stettin, Königsberg, and other ports on the Baltic, excluding the im- Trieste, Venice, Fiume, &c. Tons. Tons. 192,000 83,000 - 70,000 8,000 30,000 161,000 36,000 10,000 35,000 12,000 35,000 61,000 15,000 640,000 Now, supposing these statements to be reasonably correct, it would seem that the aggregate supply considerably exceeds the demand; the latter, it is true, is rapidly increasing, but, as the power to produce additional sugar is (at least so long as Brazil, Cuba, and Java are supplied with compulsory labour) all but illimitable, no permanent rise of price need be looked for. (The Supplement to the Spectator for the 15th April, 1843, contains an elaborate article with respect to the state of the sugar trade; and we have availed ourselves, though without adopting its statements, of the information which it affords.) Taking the price of sugar at the low rate of 11. 4s. a cwt., or 247. a ton, the prime cost of the article to the people of Europe and the U. States will be 15,360,000l. sterling; to which adding 50 per cent. for duty, its total cost will be 23,040,000l. ! This is sufficient to prove the paramount importance of the trade in this article. Exclusive, however, of sugar, the other products of the cane, as rum, molasses, treacle, &c., are of very great value. The revenue derived by the British treasury from rum only, amounts, at present, to about 1,000,000l. a year, but it has sometimes been nearly three times as great. Progressive Consumption of Sugar in Great Britain. - We are not aware that there are any authentic accounts with respect to the precise period when sugar first began to be used in England. It was, however, imported in small quantities by the Venetians and Genoese in the 14th and 15th centuries*; but honey was then, and long after, the principal ingredient employed in sweetening liquors and dishes. Even in the early part of the 17th century, the quantity of sugar imported was very inconsiderable; and it was made use of only in the houses of the rich and great. It was not till the latter part of the century, when coffee and tea began to be introduced, that sugar came into general demand. In 1700, the quantity consumed was about 10,000 tons, or 22,000,000 lbs. ; at this moment, the consumption has increased (bastards included) to above 180,000 tons, or more than 400,000,000 lbs. ; so that sugar forms not only one of the principal articles of importation and sources of revenue, but an important necessary of life. Great, however, as the increase in the use of sugar has certainly been, it may, we think, be easily shown that the demand for it is still much below its natural limit; and that, were the existing duties on sugar reduced, and the trade placed on a proper footing, its consumption, and the revenue derived from it, would be greatly increased. During the first half of last century, the consumption of sugar increased five-fold. It amounted, as already stated In the reign of Queen Anne, the duty on sugar amounted to 3s. 5d. per cwt. additions were made to it in the reign of George II.; but in 1780 it was only 68. 8d. In 1781, a considerable addition was made to the previous duty; and in 1787 it was as high as 12s. 4d. In 1791 it was raised to 15s.; and while its extensive and increasing consumption pointed it out as an article well fitted to augment the public revenue, the pressure on the public finances, caused by the French war, occasioned its being loaded with duties, which, though they yielded a large return, would, there is good reason to think, have been more productive had they been lower. In 1797, the duty was raised * In Marin's Storia del Commercio de' Veneziani (vol. v. p. 306.), there is an account of a shipment made at Venice for England in 1319, of 100,000 lbs. sugar, and 10,000 lbs. sugar candy. The sugar is said to have been brought from the Levant. An Account, showing the Quantities of the several Sorts of Sugar imported into the U. Kingdom; when entered for Home Consumption, and the Nett Revenue accruing thereon; in each Year since Years. These are the quantities retained for consumption, after the quantities exported in a raw or refined state, after payment The quantities of foreign sugar above shown as retained for home consumption in the years 1815-18, consisted chiefly of 53 Geo. 3. c. 62. the Quantities retained for actual Consumption within the same; the Rates of Duty charged on Sugar 1815; with a Statement of the Average Prices of British and Foreign Sugar in Bond for the same to 17s. 6d. ; 2 years after, it was raised to 20s.; and, by successive augmentations in 1803, 1804, and 1806, it was raised to 30s. ; but in the last-mentioned year it was enacted, that, in the event of the market price of sugar in bond, or exclusive of the duty, being for the 4 months previous to the 5th of January, the 5th of May, or the 5th of September, below 49s. a cwt., the Lords of the Treasury might remit 1s. a cwt. of the duty; that if the prices were below 488., they might remit 28.; and if below 478., they might remit 3s., which was the greatest reduction that could be made. In 1826, the duty on West India sugar was declared to be constant at 27s. without regard to price; the duty on sugar from the Mauritius being then also reduced to 278. In 1830, the duty was reduced to 24s. on West India and Mauritius sugar, and to 32s. on East India sugar; and in 1836, the duty on the latter was reduced to the same level as that on the former. The duty on foreign sugars is a prohibitory one of 63s. a cwt. Account of the Quantity of Sugar_retained for Home Consumption in GREAT BRITAIN, the Nett Revenue derived from it, and the Rates of Duty with which it was charged, in each Year from 1789 to 1814, both inclusive. Account of the Quantities of Sugar imported into the United Kingdom from the West Indies aud British Guiana, distinguishing the Quantities from each Colony, in each Year from 1831 to 1842, both inclusive. Total 51,548 48,161 7,366 8,397 245,778 202 4,336 284,605 100 486,487 415,261 93,157 90,063 4,103,800 3,773,456 3,646,205 3,843,9763,524,209 3,601,791 3,306,775 3,520,676 2,824,372 2,214,764 2,151,217 2,508,910 We had occasion, in the former edition of this work, to remark on the impolicy and injustice of charging sugar from our possessions in the East Indies with a higher rate of duty than was laid on sugar from the West Indies. But, as already seen, this distinction was suppressed in 1826, and the sugar of our various colonial possessions and dependencies is now admitted for consumption on the same terms. We incline, however, to think that the duty on sugar from British possessions is decidedly too high, and that, were the trade placed on a proper footing, it might be advantageously reduced from 24s. to 16s. a cwt. But whether the duty on sugar of our possessions be or be not too high, there cannot, we apprehend, be so much as the shadow of a doubt that the duty on foreign sugars is fully twice as great as it should be. This duty, which has amounted for a lengthened period to 63s. a cwt., was, in fact, intended to be prohibitory; and, so long as our foreign dependencies furnished so much sugar as not only to supply the markets of the U. Kingdom, but to supply, besides, a considerable excess for exportation to others, there was little to object to in the magnitude of the duty. Latterly, however, it has become most oppressive in its operation. In consequence, as already seen, of the measures connected with the emancipation of the slaves, the imports of sugar from the West Indies have declined from 4,103,746 cwts. in 1831, to 2,508,910 cwts. in 1842. Owing to the immigration of hill-coolies, and other circumstances, the emancipation of the slaves in the Mauritius has not been so injurious as in the West Indies. Still, however, the exports of sugar from that island have declined, especially in 1843, and though there has been a great increase in the imports from India, they have not sufficed to balance the deficiency in the colonial supplies. On the one hand, therefore, we have a rapidly increasing population, and on the other we have had that population confined by an oppressive duty to a market for sugar, the supply of which has been progressively diminishing! The consequences have been such as every man of sense must have anticipated from the outset. The business of refining for the foreign market, and our export trade in sugar, have been all but annihilated, while the average gazette price of muscovado sugar admissible to the English markets amounted during the 3 years ending with 1842 to more than double the price of foreign sugar in bond, of equal or superior quality! We beg, in illustration of what is now stated, to subjoin an Account of the Quantities of Sugar retained for Consumption, of the Nett Produce of the Duties thereon, and of the Prices of British Sugar (ex Duty) and Brazil Sugar in bond, in 1840, 1841, and 1842, with the Average for these 3 Years. Now, it appears from this statement, that while the price of British sugar (exclusive of duty) amounted, during the 3 years ending with 1842, to 41s. 10d. per cwt., the price of Brazil (and Cuba) sugar was only 20s. 2d. per do. ! And hence it follows, that had the present prohibitory duty of 63s. on foreign sugar been reduced to the same rate (25s. 2d., or 24s. plus 5 per cent.) as that on British sugars, the people of the U. Kingdom might have bought the same quantity of sugar for 20s. 2d. that cost them 41s. 10d, that is, they might have got more than 2 lbs. of sugar for the same sacrifice it has cost them to get 1 lb. The aggregate loss to the public from this preposterous arrangement of the sugar duties has been quite enormous. It appears from the above account that the average consumption of sugar, during each of the 3 years ending with 1842, amounted to 3,840,3094 cwts., which at 41s. 103d. cost 8,040,6467. 19s. 4'd. But, had we been allowed to go into the foreign market for sugar, we might have got the same quantity for 3,872,3114. 18s. 24d., being a saving in 1 year of no less than 4,168,335. 18. 5d., and on 3 years, of 12,505,055l. 48. 3d. But it may, perhaps, be said, that had our ports been open to the free importation of Brazilian and other foreign sugars, the price of the latter would have been raised: and so, probably, it would; though, considering the vast extent and productiveness of the field from which sugar may be brought, we doubt whether this effect would be very sensible. But, supposing that the opening of our ports had raised the price of foreign sugar from 20s. 2d. to 25s. a cwt., still the saving would have amounted to 3,240,260l. 6s. a year! Under these circumstances, the effectual reduction of the duty on foreign sugars does not appear to be a matter of the expediency, or rather of the necessity, of which there can be the smallest doubt. It is plainly in our power, not only without any sacrifice, but with a great increase of revenue, by merely substituting a free for a monopoly system in the trade of sugar, to add immensely to the supply of that indispensable necessary, and, by consequence, to the comfort and well-being of the great bulk of the community. It is, however, contended, in opposition to the proposal for reducing the duty on foreign sugar, that this is not a question to be wholly decided on financial and commercial considerations; that, having done so much for the suppression of slavery, it would be most inconsequential to turn round and encourage it by admitting sugar raised by slaves into our markets; and that it would be unjust to our planters, seeing |