§ MR. BRIGHT (Shropshire, Oswestry)To ask the Secretary to the Board of Trade what was the average price of 88 per cent, beet sugar, f.o.b. Hamburg, in July, 1902; what was the bounty at that time in Germany, France, and Austria respectively; and what is the price of the same sugar to-day without the bounty.
(Answered, by Mr. Bonar Law.) The mean of the market quotations for 88 per cent. beet sugar in July, 1902, was 6s. 0¼d. per cwt. The present quotation (3rd August) is 10s. 1½d. per cwt. The amounts of the bounties on raw sugar given by Germany, France, and Austria-Hungary, respectively, in 1902, as estimated by the United States Government for the purpose of assessing countervailing duties, were 1s. 2¾d., 4s. 4¾d., and 11¼d. per cwt. These amounts do not include any indirect bounties arising from the action of cartels, the precise amount of which it is not possible to calculate.