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Effects of the 1884 Beet Sugar Crisis on British Guiana and Barbados.
“Beet sugar is and has been the greatest single challenge ...
Submitted by estherd on October 3, 2007
Category: History Other
Words: 6454 | Pages: 26
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"Beet sugar is and has been the greatest single challenge to the viability of cane sugar."
M. Shahabuddeen
CRISIS has apparently cohabited with the British West Indian sugar industry for much of that industry's existence. Crisis, if not ruin, has been forecast or asserted since the early 18th century – during the perennial Anglo-French wars, during and after the war for American Independence, during the Napoleonic wars, when the slave trade was abolished, when competition from Mauritius and East India emerged, when slavery was about to be abolished, and, of course when control over the traditional market for sugar was lost. What is remarkable is that this crisis-ridden industry survived all these shocks.
In 1884, however, the British West Indian economy entered another period of depression and instability. The primary reason for this was the sharp decline in the sugar industry and this decline was due to the increased competition from sugar beet which was manufactured by France, Germany, Austria, Holland, Belgium and Russia. According to the report submitted by the 1897 West Indian Royal Commission, which was sent out to "inquire into the depressed conditions of the industry", the depression, "of the industry is due to the competition of other sugar producing countries and in special degree to the competition of beet sugar produced under a system of bounties."
In the early years of the beet sugar industry, which started from the time of Napoleon, there was no serious threat to West Indian sugar. The governments of these countries had several reasons for encouraging the manufacture of beet sugar. Apart from the fact that it helped to make these countries self-sufficient particularly in times of war when their supplies from overseas could be threatened by enemy action, production was encouraged because the increasing populations of these countries needed employment in any industry that could be established. For...
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