SUGAR AND ITS COMMERCE
The term sugar is applied rather loosely to a large number of substances
characterized by the quality of sweetness. In a few instances the name
is given to certain mineral salts, such as sugar of lead, but in the
main the sugars are plant products very similar in chemical structure to
the starches. They are very closely connected with plant growth, and
even in animal life, starchy substances are changed to sugar in the
process of digestion. Although sugar does not sustain life, it is
necessary as an adjunct to other food-stuffs, and it is probably
consumed by a greater number of people than any other food-stuffs except
starch and water.
Three kinds of sugar are found in commerce, namely--_cane_-sugar,
_grape_-sugar, and _milk_-sugar. Cane-sugar occurs in the sap of the
sugar-cane, sorghum-cane, certain of the palms, and the juice of the
beet. Grape-sugar is the sweet principle of most fruits and of honey.
Sugar of milk occurs in milk, and in several kinds of nuts.
=Sugar-Cane Sugar.=--Cane-sugar is so called because until recently it was
derived almost wholly from the sap of the sugar-cane (_Saccharum
officinarum_). The plant belongs to the grass family and much resembles
maize before the latter has matured. It is thought to be native to Asia,
but it is now cultivated in nearly all tropical countries in the world.
Practically every moist tropical region in the world, the basins of the
Kongo and Amazon Rivers excepted, is a cane-sugar-producing region. As
a rule it is grown in the states under native rule for home consumption,
and in European colonial possessions for commercial purposes. India and
China are probably the foremost in the production of sugar-cane sugar,
but the product is not exported. Cuba, Java, the Gulf coast of the
United States, Mauritius, the Philippine and the Hawaiian Islands
produce the most of the supply that enters into commerce.
=Beet-Sugar.=--During the last quarter of the nineteenth century the
demands for sugar increased so greatly that it became necessary either
to raise the price of the commodity, or else to utilize some plant other
than the sugar-cane as a source. After a few years of experimental work
it was found that sugar could be readily extracted from the juice of the
common beet (_Beta vulgaris_). Several varieties of this plant have been
improved and are now very largely cultivated for the purpose. Beet-sugar
and cane-sugar are identical.
Almost all the beet-sugar of commerce comes from northwestern Europe;
Germany leads with nearly one-third the world's product; France,
Austria, and Russia follow, each producing about one-sixth. A small
amount is produced in the United States--mainly in California and
Michigan. The area of production, however, is increasing.
=Other Cane-Sugars.=--Maple-sugar is derived from the sap of several
species of maple-trees occurring mainly in the northeastern United
States and in Canada. The sap is obtained by tapping the trees in early
spring, a single tree often yielding several gallons. The value of
maple-sugar lies mainly in its pleasant flavor. It is used partly as a
confection, but in the main as a sirup. A very large part of the
maple-sirup and not a little of the sugar is artificial, consisting of
ordinary sugar colored with caramel and flavored with an extract
prepared from the maple-tree.
Sorghum-sugar is obtained from a cane known as Chinese grass, or Chinese
millet. It has been introduced into the United States from southeastern
Asia and Japan. The sorghum-cane grows well in the temperate zone, and
its cultivation in the Mississippi Valley States has been successful.
The sugar is not easily crystallizable, however, and it is usually made
into table-sirup.
Maguey-sugar is derived from the sap of the maguey-plant (_Agave
Americana_). It is much used in Mexico and the Central American states.
The method of manufacture is very crude and the product is not exported.
Palm-sugar is obtained from the sap of several species of palm growing
in India and Africa.
=Sugar Manufacture.=--Sugar manufacture includes three
processes--expressing the sap, evaporating, and refining. The first two
are carried on at or near the plantations; the last is an affair
requiring an immense capital and a most elaborately organized plant. The
refining is done mainly in the great centres of population at places
most convenient for transportation. The raw sugar may travel five or ten
thousand miles to reach the refinery; the refined product rarely travels
more than a thousand miles.
After it has been cut and stripped of its leaves the sugar-cane is
crushed between powerful rollers in order to express the juice. The
sugar-beet is rasped or ground to a pulp and then subjected to great
pressure. The expressed juice contains about ten or twelve per cent. of
sugar. In some factories the beet, or the cane, is cut into thin slices
and thrown into water, the juice being extracted by the solvent
properties of the latter. This is known as the "diffusion" process.
The juice is first strained or filtered under pressure in order to
remove all foreign matter and similar impurities. It is then clarified
by adding slacked lime, at the same time heating the liquid nearly to
the boiling point and skimming off the impurities that rise to the
surface. The purified juice is then boiled rapidly in vacuum pans until
it is greatly concentrated.
When the proper degree of concentration is reached, the liquid is
quickly run off into shallow pans, in which most of it immediately
crystallizes. The crystalline portion forms the _raw sugar_ of commerce;
the remaining part is molasses. The whole mass is then shovelled into a
centrifugal machine which in a few minutes separates the two products.
In purchasing raw sugar, the refiner was formerly at a loss to know just
how much pure sugar could be made from a given weight of the raw sugar.
In order to aid in making a correct determination, the Dutch government
formerly prepared sixteen samples put up in glass flasks and sealed.
These samples varied in color according to the amount of pure sugar
contained. The pure solution was known in commerce as No. 16 Dutch
standard, and this was generally taken all over the world as the
standard of pure sugar. Within recent years the polariscope, an optical
instrument that determines the percentage of sugar by means of polarized
light, has largely replaced the Dutch standard.
The refineries, as a rule, are built with reference to a minimum
handling and transportation of the raw product. The cane-sugar
refineries are mainly at the great seaports, where the raw sugar does
not pay railway transportation. The beet-sugar refineries are in the
midst of the beet-growing districts. So nearly perfect and economically
managed are these processes, that raw sugar imported from Europe or
from the West Indies, at a cost of from two and a quarter to two and a
half cents per pound, is refined and sold at retail at about five cents.
The margin of profit is so very close, however, that in the United
States, as well as most European states, the sugar industry is protected
by government enactments. In the United States imported raw sugar pays a
tariff in order to protect the cane-sugar industry of the Gulf coast and
the beet-sugar grower of the Western States. The duty at the close of
the nineteenth century was about 1.66 cents per pound; or, if the sugar
came from a foreign country paying a bounty on sugar exported, an
additional countervailing duty equal to the bounty was also charged.
In the various states of western Europe the beet-sugar industry is
governed by a cartel or agreement among the states, which makes the
whole business a gigantic combination arrayed against the tropical sugar
interests. In general, the government of each state pays a bounty on
every pound of beet-sugar exported. The real effect of the export bounty
is about the same as the imposition of a tax on the sugar purchased for
consumption at home.
Two-thirds of the entire sugar product are made from the beet, at an
average cost of about 2.5 cents a pound. In the tropical islands the
yield of cane-sugar per acre is about double that of beet-sugar and it
is produced for about five dollars less per ton. This difference is in
part offset by the fact that the raw cane-sugar must pay transportation
for a long distance to the place of consumption, and in part by the
government bounties paid on the beet product.
Both the political and the economic effects of beet sugar-making have
been far-reaching. In Germany the agricultural interests of the country
have been completely reorganized. The uncertain profits of cereal
food-stuffs have given place to the sure profits of beet-sugar
cultivation, with the result that the income of the Germans has been
enormously increased. In the other lowland countries of western Europe
the venture has been equally successful. Even the Netherlands has
profited by it.
In the case of Spain, the result of beet-sugar cultivation was
disastrous. The price of cane-sugar in Cuba and the Philippine Islands
fell to such a low point that the islands could not pay the taxes
imposed by the mother country. Instead of lowering the taxes and
adjusting affairs to the changed conditions, the Spaniards drove the
islands into rebellion, and the latter finally resulted in war with the
United States, and the loss of the colonies. Great Britain wisely
adjusted her colonial affairs to the changed conditions, but the British
colonies suffered greatly from beet-sugar competition.
=Production and Consumption.=--The production and consumption of sugar
increased about sevenfold during the latter half of the nineteenth
century, the increase being due very largely to the decreased price.
Thus, in 1850, white (loaf) sugar was a luxury, retailing at about
twenty cents per pound; in 1870 the wholesale price of pure granulated
sugar was fourteen cents; in 1902 it was not quite five cents.
Although the tropical countries are greatly handicapped by the political
legislation of the European states, they cannot supply the amount of
sugar required, unless the area of production be greatly extended. It is
also certain that without governmental protection, sugar growing in the
temperate zone cannot compete with that of the tropical countries.
Of the eight million tons of sugar yearly consumed, two-thirds are
beet-sugar. The annual consumption per capita is about ninety pounds in
Great Britain, seventy pounds in the United States, and not far from
thirty-five pounds in Germany and France. In Russia and the eastern
European countries it is less than fifteen pounds.
=Molasses.=--The molasses of commerce is the uncrystallizable sugar that
is left in the vacuum pans at the close of the process of evaporation.
The molasses formerly known as "sugar house" is a filthy product that
nowadays is scarcely used, except in the manufacture of rum. The color
of molasses is due mainly to the presence of "caramel" or half-charred
sugar; it cannot be wholly removed by any ordinary clarifying process.
Purified molasses is usually known as "sirup," and much of it is made by
boiling a solution of raw sugar to the proper degree of concentration. A
considerable part is made from the sap of the sorghum-cane, and probably
a larger quantity consists of glucose solution colored with caramel.
Maple-sirup, formerly a solution of maple-sugar, is now very largely
made from raw cane-sugar clarified and artificially flavored.
=Glucose.=--Glucose, or grape-sugar, is the natural sugar of the grape and
most small fruits. Honey is a nearly pure, concentrated solution of
glucose. Grape-sugar has, roughly, about three-fifths the sweetening
power of cane-sugar. Natural grape-sugar is too expensive for ordinary
commercial use; the commercial product, on the other hand, is
artificial, and is made mainly from cornstarch.
Glucose is employed in the cheaper kinds of confectionery in the United
States; most of it, however, is exported to Great Britain, the annual
product being worth about four million dollars. From the fact that it
can be made more economically from corn than from any other grain,
practically all the glucose is made in the United States.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
It frequently happens that the prices of sugar and tin-plate rise and
fall together; show how the fruit-crop may cause this fluctuation.
Which of the possessions of the United States are adaptable for
cane-sugar?--for beet-sugar?
In what ways has the manufacture of sugar brought about international
complications?
What is meant by "Dutch Standard" tests?--by polariscope tests?
FOR REFERENCE AND STUDY
Obtain specimens of rock candy, granulated sugar, raw sugar, and
caramel; observe each carefully with a magnifying glass and note the
difference.
World's Sugar Production.