The initial error lay in the assumption that these Northern Districts round Tucuman were especially adapted by climate and other conditions to the cultivation of cane. No such natural privilege exists. The origin of the industry, on the contrary, is to be found in that very distance from a port which renders its present condition anomalous. Sugar-cultivation was instituted solely with a view to the satisfaction of local requirements, and the idea of competition with foreign produce in the capital was probably never dreamed of. This view is the more probable when it is remembered that Tucuman lies nearly a thousand miles from Buenos Aires, while railway communication was not established until 1888 or even later. At that time, however, protection was already in full force. Although full communication was not established until 1892, and till then goods had to be transported by cartage, or whatever means the state of the roads (such as they were) permitted, so early as 1883 the duty was raised from the existing rate of 25% _ad volorem_, to a specific tax of 5 cents per kilo, at a time when there was only one currency. The impost being irrespective of quality, the actual burdens resulted as follows: On refined Sugar valued by the customs at 19 c. the kilo, 26½%; on white or granulated with a valuation of 14 c., 35¾%, on raw of 11½ c. per kilo, 43½%. It is obvious says the writer, that the greatest burden fell on the lower grades, the only ones which the local refineries were in a position to produce and to offer in competition with imported sugars. The year 1885 marked the next stage in the development. Owing to facilities of transport being absent, Tucuman was in no better position than before, while the issue in the same year of the decree authorising a paper currency with the consequent premium upon gold, resulted in a natural increase in the restrictions on importation. The increase in the duty was nominally from 5 to 7 c. per kilo irrespective of quality. But the actual increase resulted in a total of 90% on refined sugar and 108% on the lower grades. The third increase took place three years later, in 1888, when the import charge was raised to 9 c. gold per kilo on refined sugar, other qualities being taxed at the old figure. On M. Pillado's estimate this meant a difference of 268% between the cost of that sugar in bond and its price to the importer.[7] [7] The percentage seems to work out at 219, while the premium on gold in that year (1888), as given in another official publication of 1906, was in reality 150 roughly, which would mean 184%. But the absence of reliable data makes an amateur result untrustworthy.