=384. The European sugar bounty system.=—The reader should, however, note carefully that these changes were due in large part to a system of protection which had grown to formidable proportions. European governments have found in sugar a convenient object of taxation, but have desired at the same time to further the growth of the home sugar industry, and to secure for it a market in foreign countries. They have sought to combine the two objects by taxing the home consumer, and by remitting the tax and giving special premiums to the exporter. A pound of sugar cost far more in a country of Europe where it was manufactured, than in the country to which it was exported; every pound sold at home had to bear a tax, and every pound sent abroad received a premium which enabled it to be sold more cheaply. The orange marmalade industry, for which the town of Dundee is famous, could flourish in spite of the expense of transporting the fruit from Spain to Scotland, because sugar was artificially cheap in the English market. Such a condition of affairs was admitted to be unwholesome; in some aspects it became absurd. The burden of the bounty system became intolerable and the governments of the Continent agreed upon measures of reform, which went into effect in 1903. QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 1. Make a brief written summary of the contents of preceding chapters under the heads of section 371. 2. On an outline map of Europe indicate areas corresponding to the sphere of commerce in different periods, with approximate dates. 3. Suppression of the slave trade. [Schuyler, Amer. diplomacy, N.Y., 1886, chap. 5.] 4. Recent slave trade in Africa. [Biography of a modern missionary or explorer.] 5. The coal trade at the close of the century. [Special Consular Report, No. 21, 1900, part 1, Foreign markets for American coal; U. S. Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance, April, 1900, vol. 7, no. 10, pp. 2815-2927, or Sept., 1902, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 663-757.] 6. On the wares of 375 and the following sections prepare reports, indicating, where it is possible, the following points: total amount of the world’s product; the leading countries (perhaps six), the share of each, and their relative advantages; the chief importing countries; peculiar characteristics of the trade. [Commercial geographies, encyclopedias.] 7. Report on one of the following topics: (_a_) Development of the uses of petroleum. (_b_) History of the production and transportation of petroleum. (_c_) The Standard Oil Company. [Martin, Coal; encyclopedias; Gilbert H. Montague, The rise and progress of the Standard Oil Company, N. Y., Harper, 1903, $1; Ida M. Tarbell, The History of the Standard Oil Company, N. Y., 1904.] 8. Indicate on an outline map the distance from your home to which wheat could profitably be carried by different means of transportation. [See below, sect. 387, for convenient statistics.] 9. Character and value of wheat. [Edgar, Story, chaps. 1, 2.]