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SUGAR is so extensively used
among all classes of society, that it is regarded as almost a necessary. In
point of commercial importance it ranks very high, and the duty drawn from
it forms a considerable item in the national revenue. Yet, up till what must
be considered a recent period, in speaking of what is a common article of
food, sugar was mentioned only as a medicine, and subsequently as a luxury,
to which the wealthy alone could aspire. The first reference to sugar occurs
in the works of Theophrastus, who lived 320 years before the Christian era,
where it is called "a sort of honey extracted from canes or reeds."
Subsequent writers among the ancients refer to sugar as an object of
curiosity, and Pliny expressly states that it was used in medicine only. The
Chinese were acquainted from a remote period with the process of making
sugar- candy, and the Greeks and Romans obtained the little that came under
their notice from China. It would appear that Europe is indebted to the
Saracens not only for the first considerable supplies of sugar, but for the
earliest example of its manufacture. After conquering the islands of Rhodes,
Cyprus, Sicily, and Crete in the ninth century, the Saracens introduced into
them the sugarcane; and from that source Europeans drew their first
supplies. The same people began the cultivation of the sugar-cane in Spain
as soon as they obtained a footing in it. About 1420 the Portuguese took the
sugar-cane from Sicily to Madeira and the Canary Islands; and from these
places the cultivation of the cane and the art of making sugar were extended
to the West Indian Islands and the Brazils. The first British settlement in
the West Indies was Barbadoes, which was taken possession of in 1627. Twenty
years afterwards sugar began to be exported from the island, and that was
the first sugar produced in British possessions, the supply previously being
obtained chiefly from the Portuguese settlements in Brazil. The British
planters in Barbadoes, after becoming thoroughly acquainted with the modes
of cultivating and extracting the sugar, did a large trade, and thereby
accumulated much wealth. In 1676 they employed in their sugar trade a fleet
of four hundred vessels. The first mention of sugar being imported into
England is found in Marin's "History of the Commerce of Venice," which
refers to a shipment at Venice for England in the year 1319 of about forty
tons of sugar and four tons of sugar-candy. In those early days honey was
the principal ingredient used in sweetening liquors and dishes; and for many
years after sugar had been introduced, it was used only in the houses of the
wealthy. Not till the latter part of the seventeenth century, when coffee
and tea began to be consumed, did sugar come into general use.
For upwards of two centuries
sugar has been subject to an import duty. In 1661, when it was first levied,
the duty amounted to ls. 6d. per cwt. on all sugar brought from British
plantations. Eight years afterwards it was raised to 3s. By a series of
augmentations the duty rose to 30s. per cwt. in 1806. From 1793 to 1803 the
duty on East India sugar was 37 and 38 per cent. ad valorem, and for many
years afterwards it was 11s. and 8s. per cwt. higher than the duty on West
India sugar. The rates of duty were assimilated in 1836 by the reduction of
the charge on East India sugar from 32s. to 24s. per cwt. A prohibitory duty
of 60s. to 63s. per cwt. was imposed on foreign sugars up till 1844, when it
was, under certain circumstances, lowered to 34s.; and in some favoured
instances (to encourage free instead of slave labour) the charge was fixed
as low as 23s. 6d. Sugar from British possessions was at that time paying
from 14s. to 21s., according to quality. By Acts passed in 1816 and 1848,
the duties on British and foreign sugar were gradually equalised. The
equalisation was completed in 1854, in which year all sugars paid from 10s.
to 13s. 4d., according to quality. Those rates were increased during the
Russian war, and, by the tariff of 1860, another advance was made to from
12s. 8d. to 18s. 4d. In 1867 the duty was lowered to from 8s. to 12s. per
cwt.
The quantity of sugar
consumed in Britain in the year 1700 was only 10,000 tons, while in 1868 it
was nearly 700,000 tons. The following table, though not quite perfect,
shows correctly enough for general readers the quantity consumed in various
years, the number of pounds per head of the population, the price per cwt.
including duty, and the amount of duty paid on all descriptions of sugar:—
It is estimated that the
annual production of sugar over the world amounts to 3,000,000 tons. Roughly
dividing the nations into groups, the interesting fact is shown that the
Anglo-Saxon races— Great Britain and her colonies and the United States—are
the most important consumers, as they use 1,142,000 tons of sugar per annum,
or 41.40 lb per head. The .Latin races come next. France, Italy, Spain,
Belgium, Portugal, and Switzerland use 506,000 tons per annum, or 1214 lb.
per head. The Zollverein, Austria, Holland, the Hanseatic League, and
Denmark, consume 262,000 tons per annum, or 7.30 lb. per head. Last come the
vast but poverty- stricken districts ruled by Russia, together with the
semi-barbarous Ottoman Empire, and the kingdom of Greece. Russia, Poland,
Turkey, and Greece consume less than half of what is used by the smallest
civilised European consumers, and the deliveries in these countries amount
to only 125,000 tons, or 3.30 lb. per head.
In Stow's "Survey of London,"
it is stated that the art of refilling sugar was commenced in that city
about the year 1544, by the erec¬tion of two refineries. After twenty years
of varied fortune, those refineries turned out to be very remunerative to
their owners, and many other persons embarked in the business. For a
considerable time the London refineries enjoyed a monopoly of the trade,
which was subsequently shared with Liverpool and Bristol. Scotland was long
behind the sister kingdom in engaging in sugar-refining; but now the Scotch
refiners are rivalling those of England, and have, during the past ten
years, made marvellous progress. There are in Scotland twenty sugar
refineries—fourteen at Greenock, three at Glasgow, two at Leith, and one at
Port-Glasgow; but several of these, owing to various causes, are not in
operation at present.
The first sugar-refinery in
Greenock was started in 1765 by a few West Indian merchants, who formed
themselves into a company for that purpose. They fixed upon Greenock, which
at that time was the port of Glasgow, as the most suitable place for a
sugar-house. A site at the foot of Sugar-House Lane, adjoining the West
Burn, and near the West Harbour, was secured; and a sugar-house, which at
the time was considered a great undertaking, was erected. This building is
still in existence, but it has been repeatedly enlarged and improved. It is
now occupied by Messrs A. Currie & Co. The second sugar- house was started
in 1787 by a company of Greenock merchants. A large substantial
dwelling-house, at the head of Sugar-House Lane, was purchased by them, and
converted into a refinery. It had two pans at starting, but the number was
afterwards increased. That house was in operation up till within the last
five years, when it was sold and converted into a store. A third sugar-house
was built in 1802, in Bogle Street, by Messrs Robert Macfie & Sons, the
founders of extensive refineries in Liverpool and Leith. It contained two
pans at starting, but a third was added eight years afterwards; and it was
then considered an extensive concern. This refinery has been in the market
for some time, and a part of it was recently let as a store.
The fourth sugar-house was
built by Messrs James Fairrie & Co., on Cartsburn, in 1809. It was burned
many years ago, but another house was built farther up the burn, and is now
occupied by a young firm. The fifth sugar-house was built in 1812, by Messrs
Wm. Leitch & Co., in the Glebe. This house is not now a refinery, but the
name has been adopted by the Glebe Sugar-Refinery Company, now the most
extensive refiners in Greenock. It thus appears that in the forty-seven
years up till 1812, five sugar-houses had been erected in Greenock, the
third, fourth, and fifth having been built within a period of ten years. For
the next fourteen years there was a lull, and it was not till 1826 that the
sixth house was built, on a site at the High Bridge. Three years later
Messrs Tasker built a refinery in Dallingburn Street, which is carried on by
Messrs Crawhalls & Co. From 1830 till 1860, refineries were built for or
leased by the following firms :—Messrs Pattens; Walkers & Co.; Richard- sons
& Co.; Anderson, Orr, & Co.; A. Anderson & Co.; Blair, Reid, & Steele; Neill
& Dempster; Alexander Scott & Co.; and Ballantyne, Adam, & Rowan. The houses
of the two last named firms were built about eleven years ago. During the
past ten years only one new house has been built—namely, the Orchards
Sugar-Refinery, erected in 1863; but two or three of the old ones have been
rebuilt, and two of the houses mentioned are being rebuilt—one of them on a
new site. Of the Greenock refineries ten are in operation, two closed
temporarily, and two are being rebuilt. The most extensive works are those
of the Glebe Sugar-Refining Company, and of Messrs Walker & Company. Each of
these, it is said, turns out about 700 tons of sugar a-week. The Glebe
Sugar-Refining Company paid, in 1868, to the Customs, as duty on the sugar
refined in their establishment, L.350,000. They employ about 300 hands.
At Glasgow there are three
refineries. Two are at present working, and one has been stopped, owing to
action taken by the creditors of the concern. A sugar-house which was
carried on for many years in Port-Glasgow has been sold, and the proprietors
have in contemplation a large extension of their refinery in Greenock.
The great improvements made
in the machinery used in the refining process have, in the course of ten
years, and without any addition to the number of refineries in operation,
increased threefold the quantity of sugar refined—the raw sugar consumed by
all the refineries on the Clyde in 1858 being 56,769 tons—in 1868 it rose to
171,643 tons. The average quantity of refined sugar turned out by the
refineries in Greenock is about 60 tons a-day, when working full time, so
that the fourteen refineries are equal to the production of 840 tons a-day.
The amount of shipping employed in the sugar trade is very large. Last year
there arrived in the Clyde 416 vessels, of about 140,000 tons, or an average
of 335 tons. About 400 of these discharged their cargoes at Greenock. With
the exception of 16 vessels from Mauritius, 2 from Java, and 30 from Dunkirk
and Antwerp, the cargoes were from the West Indies and Brazils, 184 vessels
being from Cuba alone.
The following statement of
the imports into the Clyde during the past twelve years will show the
progress of the trade:-
It is evident, from recent
articles in trade newspapers, that the London refiners are finding those on
the Clyde to be very formidable competitors. Everywhere the Clyde sugars are
preferred by consumers, as being superior in quality to, and quite as cheap
as, those of London. The spirit of enterprise which has made the banks of
the Clyde famous in the annals of commerce and manufactures has been more
manifest in nothing than in the manner in which the trade of sugar-refining
has been taken up and is now carried on. Every promising invention tending
to perfect and expedite the processes is taken advantage of, and the Clyde
refiners are in all respects the best in existence. The London refiners
would appear to have felt secure in the monopoly which they long enjoyed of
supplying sugar to the millions of consumers in the metropolis, and they
have in most cases neglected to keep up to the march of improvement. Old and
costly processes are retained, and the produce is losing caste in the
markets where it comes into competition with Clyde sugar. Up till about
three years ago, when a refinery was started in Ireland, nearly all the
refined sugar consumed in that division of the kingdom was supplied from
Greenock; and it is a remarkable fact that even yet the steamers trading to
Dublin, Cork, Londonderry, and Belfast, draw the greater part of their
freight from sugar, from 250 to 600 tierces being carried by them weekly.
With reference to the early
days of sugar-refining in the east of Scotland we find the following in
Arnot's "History of Edinburgh:" —"There is hardly any branch of manufacture
which in speculation affords a more undoubted success to the manufacturer,
and more general benefit to the country, than the baking or refining of
sugars; and we will venture to say that it has been owing alone to the want
of capital and conduct in its managers that it has not hitherto been
attended with remarkable success. Were this manufacture properly conducted a
trade might be established between the West Indies and the east coast of
Scotland. Sugars might be afforded to the consumer at an easier rate, the
planter and manufacturer might carry on an advantageous species of traffic,
and a great sum of money might be saved to the country which is annually
remitted to London for baked sugars. There are four sugar-houses on the east
coast of Scotland—at Edinburgh, Leith, Dundee, and Aberdeen. These at
present are mostly supplied from Glasgow. Now, supposing every house to use
500 hogsheads annually, these, amounting to 2000 hogsheads, with the usual
proportions of rum, cotton, coffee, mahogany, &c., would make cargoes for
ten or twelve sail of good ships; and these might return with cargoes of
linen, negroes' clothing, and the various other articles for which there is
a demand in the West Indies. Leith is the most centrical port for carrying
on such trade. Vessels can be fitted out there easier than from the Clyde,
and greatly lower than from London. Thus a saving would be made on the
article of freight; other charges would be likewise more moderate than
either in the Clyde or at London; and the sugars, when landed, would be
worth from four to five per. cent. more to the sugar-houses than if landed
either at Greenock or London. This, added to the savings on freight and
charges, would amount to a valuable consideration to the West India planter,
and should, no doubt, encourage him to make consignments to the port of
Leith. A house for baking of sugars was set up in Edinburgh A.D. 1751, and
the manufacture is still carried on by the company who instituted it. That
of Leith was begun in the year 1757 by a company consisting mostly of
bankers in Edinburgh; but in five years their capital was totally lost. For
some time the sugar-house remained unoccupied, till some gentlemen from
England took a lease of the subject, and revived the manufacture; but as
these wanted capital altogether, and were consequently obliged to fall upon
ruinous schemes for supporting a fictitious credit, they were speedily
involved in destruction. To them succeeded the Messrs Parkers, who kept up
the manufacture above five years. The house was then purchased by a set of
merchants in Leith, who, as they began with a sufficient capital, as they
have employed in the work the best refiners of sugar that could be procured
in London, and who, as they pay due attention to the business, promise to
conduct it with every prospect of success."
The father of Mr Macfie, M.P.
for the Leith Burghs, was a sugar- refiner many years ago in Leith. His
establishment, which stood in Elbe Street, South Leith, was destroyed by
fire. An extensive sugar-refining business leas long carried on in North
Leith by Messrs Schultze, and afterwards by Messrs Ferguson; but the house
has been shut for eight or ten years. About four years ago a number of
merchants in Edinburgh and Leith formed themselves into a company, and built
a sugar-refinery in Breadalbane Street, Leith, where, under the designation
of the Bonnington Sugar-Refining Company, they carry on an extensive and
thriving business. Their refinery is the most recently erected in Scotland,
and embraces all the latest improvements in the processes and appliances of
the trade. The refinery was partly built in 1865, but owing to an accident
it was not in operation until the following year. It is a
substantial-looking brick structure, arranged in blocks to suit the
requirements of the various departments. The raw sugar is deposited on
arrival in a large detached building, where it lies under Customs' bond, and
whence it is withdrawn as required for the supply of the works. The great
casks in which the sugar is imported weigh when full more than a ton each,
but a powerful steam elevator makes light work of transferring them to the
upper floor of the refinery. To follow them thither the visitor must ascend
a narrow iron stair, which winds round the well in which the elevator works.
The steps are black and clammy with the saccharine matter which finds its
way most persistently to all parts of such establishments. Treacle seems to
ooze from the iron hand-rail and from the brick lining of the stair. case,
so that contact with either becomes most undesirable. Up and still up the
stair .winds, until from its summit a peep over the railing would make one
giddy. Stepping through an arched opening, fitted with iron doors, the upper
floor is reached. There lie the great casks in an atmosphere quite as hot as
that which surrounded them when they were filled in the Indies. Men are busy
forcing out the "heads" of the casks, and discharging the sugar upon the
floor, through grated slits in which it quickly disappears. There are
several recognised qualities of sugar, some being so light-coloured and
clean that it would seem almost superfluous to subject it to refining; while
in other cases the stuff has a dark and uninviting appearance, which would
ensure its safety were the casks left open in the play-ground of any school.
As the casks are emptied they are placed into a large iron tank, and
subjected to the action of steam, which detaches all the sugar and
thoroughly cleanses the casks. The refined sugars are sent out in the casks
in which the raw material arrives, and, while the sugar is being operated
upon in the refinery, the casks are taken to the cooperage, where they
receive any necessary repair.
In. order to ascertain what
has become of the sugar that has disappeared so mysteriously through the
hatchways, it is necessary to descend to the floor beneath. Here are two
large circular iron vessels, called "blow-up cisterns," into which the raw
sugar descends from the floor above. Hot water is let into the cistern, and
an agitator, worked by steam, is kept going until the soluble matter is
completely reduced. The liquid is then drawn off and filtered, in order that
all insoluble matter may be removed. The filters consist of bags of stout
twilled cotton, which are suspended in iron chambers on a lower floor. When
the filters are in action steam is admitted to the chambers, which
facilitates the process. From this ordeal the liquor comes forth clear and
sparkling, but displaying a reddish tinge, the removal of which is the next
care of the refiner, and causes him nearly as much trouble and expense as
all the other operations put together.
The syrup is deprived of its
colour by being passed through powdered charcoal. This operation is carried
on in the charcoal-house, which adjoins and is nearly equal in extent to the
main building. Animal charcoal, prepared by burning bones, is the substance
used, and several hundreds of tons are constantly in use. The filtering-
vessels are made of cast iron, and are cylindrical in form, each measuring
fifteen feet in depth by nine in diameter. Into each filter are run about
twenty tons of charcoal, in grain resembling coarse sand. Liquor from the
bag filters is then allowed to flow in until the vessels are filled, when a
tap in the bottom is opened, and the syrup runs off in a colourless stream.
The charcoal loses its power of decolouring after being in use for two days,
and then it has to be revivified. It is first washed by making hot water
flow through it, then withdrawn from the filter, and brought to a red heat
in peculiarly constructed kilns or furnaces. This treatment completely
restores its powers. From the charcoal-house the syrup is pumped into great
iron cisterns placed on one of the floors of the main building, and thence
it is withdrawn to supply the pans.
Prior to the year 1812 the
only mode practised for concentrating the syrup, or bringing it to the
crystallising point, was boiling it in open copper vessels. In the year
mentioned, Mr Howard patented his vacuum pan, one of the most important
inventions in connection with sugar-refining. A high temperature destroys
the crystallising property of sugar, and converts it into treacle; and when
the old method of concentration was in use, great loss occurred in
consequence of the large proportion of treacle which was inevitably
produced. Mr Howard, having become acquainted with the well- known. fact
that liquids boil in vacuum at a much lower temperature than when exposed to
the air, applied it to the concentration of sugar with the most complete
success, and his pans are now universally employed. By the exercise of
ordinary diligence the formation of treacle is almost entirely prevented,
and the sugar is brought to much higher condition at one operation than it
could formerly be by repeated refining. The Bonnington Company have two pans
of the largest size and most perfect construction. Each is capable of
boiling twelve tons of sugar at a time, and the cost of the pair was, we
believe, L.3000. The body of a pan consists of a spherical copper vessel
nine or ten feet in diameter. The bottom is double, leaving a space of an
inch or two for the admission of steam. Inside the pan is a large copper
pipe of a spiral form, through which a current of steam flows while the pan
is in action. From the top of the pan a pipe leads to a large cylindrical
vessel whither all the vapour given. off by the sugar is drawn by an air
pump and condensed by a jet of cold water. An immense quantity of water is
required to supply the condensers, and it is drawn from cisterns on the roof
of the building. As the supply is limited, the water, after performing its
duty in the condensers, is pumped back to the cistern, and the same process
is repeated. After the pan is charged with syrup the heat is gradually
raised by increasing the flow of steam through the bottom casing and worm.
The liquid boils at a temperature of 150°, and care must be taken not to let
the heat get beyond what is barely essential for ebullition. The
sugar-boiler must exercise constant vigilance, especially when the liquid
begins to thicken. The pan is fitted with instruments showing the
temperature and the degree of rarity of the air; and there is a peep-hole
through which the sugar inside the pan may be seen. As the boiling proceeds,
the attendant withdraws samples by means of a peculiarly constructed testrod,
which extracts some of the contents of the pan without letting in air. By
taking a drop of the syrup between his finger and thumb, and drawing it out
into a thin film, he is able to note the progress of crystallisation. When a
certain degree of consistency has been attained, the greater portion of the
contents of the pan is drawn off into open copper vessels called
"granulators," and fresh liquor is run into the pan.
Until a recent period, it was
customary to complete the process of crystallisation by filling the pulpy
stuff from the granulators into conical metallic moulds, which were set with
the apex down in an earthenware jar. An orifice in the point of the cone was
then opened, through which the uncrystallised syrup escaped. When the sugar
was drained sufficiently dry, all that remained to do was to put it into
casks and send it out. A much more expeditious mode of drying is now in
general use. A Belgian sugar- refiner conceived the idea of fastening a
number of the conical moulds on the rim of a large horizontal wheel, and
driving off the syrup by centrifugal force as the wheel was spun round at a
high rate of speed. An improvement in this method is the centrifugal
drying-machine, now extensively employed in manufactories of various kinds.
The machine consists of a circular vessel about four feet in diameter and
eighteen inches deep. The bottom is formed of iron, and the sides of fine
wire-gauze. Enclosing this vessel, at a distance of a few inches from the
gauze, is a strong casing of iron. The vessel is attached to a vertical axle
and gearing capable of causing it to spin round at the rate of a thousand
revolutions a minute. At the Bonnington Company's Refinery there are six
such machines on the floor beneath the pans and granulators. The semi-fluid
sugar is conveyed from the granulators to the centrifugal machines in a
waggon which runs on a railway placed at a convenient elevation. About a
hundredweight is put into each machine, and so speedily is the drying
accomplished, that three or four men are constantly employed in emptying the
machines in succession. Number one is dry by the time number six is filled,
and so the work goes on. The emptying is a speedy process—all that is
necessary being to stop the machine, open two valves in the bottom, and
shovel the sugar through them, when it falls into a truck placed to receive
it. The sugar does not have time to cool before these operations are
completed, and as it would not do to press the still warm sugar into casks,
it is raised to the cooling-floor, where it is spread out in a layer about a
foot in depth, and exposed to the free action of the air. When sufficiently
cooled it is packed, and either sent to market or stored. The syrup which is
driven off by the drying-machine is mixed with raw sugar in the "blow-up
cistern," and thus no particle of crystallisable matter is lost.
The establishment turns out
250 tons of refined sugar every week, in the production of which about 100
men are engaged. For driving the machinery six steam-engines of 80 horse
power in the aggregate are employed. Taking all the Scotch sugar-refineries
together, the number of workmen is over 2000, whose wages may be stated as
follows:—Boilers, L.200 to L.300 a-year; pan-men, 30s. to 40s. a-week;
filtermen, 17s.; warehousemen, 18s.; upstair's-men (general hands), 16s. to
17s.; charcoal kilnmen, 16s. to 18s. |
