Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 380 of 635 - First - Home
These Establishments Would Be
Introduced In Many Other Parts Of France If The Price Of The Sugar Of
The West
Indies rose to 2 francs, or 2 francs 25 cents the kilogramme,
and if the government laid no tax on
The beetroot-sugar, to compensate
the loss on the consumption of colonial sugar. The making of
beetroot-sugar is especially profitable when combined with a general
system of rural economy, with the improvement of the soil and the
nourishment of cattle: it is not a cultivation independent of local
circumstances, like that of the sugar-cane in the tropics.) The
inhabitants of the West Indies, well informed of the affairs of
Europe, no longer fear beet-root, grapes, chesnuts, and mushrooms, the
coffee of Naples nor the indigo of the south of France. Fortunately
the improvement of the condition of the West India slaves does not
depend on the success of these branches of European cultivation.
Previously to the year 1762 the island of Cuba did not furnish more
commercial produce than the three least industrious and most neglected
provinces with respect to cultivation, Veragua, the isthmus of Panama
and Darien, do at present. A political event which appeared extremely
unfortunate, the taking of the Havannah by the English, roused the
public mind. The town was evacuated in 1784 and its subsequent efforts
of industry date from that memorable period. The construction of new
fortifications on a gigantic plan* threw a great deal of money
suddenly into circulation (* It is affirmed that the construction of
the fort of Cabana alone cost fourteen millions of piastres.); later
the slave-trade became free and furnished hands for the sugar
factories.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 380 of 635
Words from 103867 to 104144
of 174507
