Troubles continue to multiply in the sugar market, but the Vass housewife who is now buying it from 6 to 9 cents, where a year ago she was paying from 22 to 30 cents, isn’t going to interfere. In all the history of the staple, conditions have never been in the sugar market anything like they are today. The price of raw sugar has been declining for 18 months. Other declines may come, as there are many warehouses still stocked by men who expected to drive up the price and wax rich, and they must sell now to pay back the sums they originally borrowed to lay in their supply.
When sugar sold at 22 cents a year ago there was absolutely no occasion for it, because there was no shortage. The rumor that a shortage did exist was started by the same men who successfully cornered the market for a while. The inflated price brought a surplus from all over the world. The speculators could not take it all, so the decline set in. Of its own weight the price started to break, continued to break, and may break still further.
This country has enormous sugar stocks on hand, and there is no occasion for a raid by the money-loving speculators. However, you need not be surprised if, in a short time, you her another fanciful yarn to the effect that sugar is going up, that this or that has happened to the crop, or that there’s another strike in Cuba. The only way the price of sugar can be advanced is to frighten the public, or for merchants themselves to get scared and begin limiting the amount of sugar sold to a customer. Then the sugar baron accomplishes the very purpose he seeks—he gets he price of sugar up to a point where he can unload it at an enormous profit, and he unloads. Sugar would never sell for more than it is selling at now in this country if the people would only buy it a few pounds at a time, as they need it, instead of hoarding it away.
From The Pilot, Devoted to the Upbuilding of Vass and Its Surrounding County, Friday, July 22, 1921
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