The Babylonia Of The Passage From Ramusio Is Cairo, - Babylon Of Egypt,
The Sugar Of Which Was Very Famous In The Middle Ages.
Zucchero di
Bambellonia is repeatedly named in Pegolotti's Handbook (210, 311, 362,
etc.).
The passage as it stands represents the Chinese as not knowing even how to
get sugar in the granular form: but perhaps the fact was that they did
not know how to refine it. Local Chinese histories acknowledge that the
people of Fo-kien did not know how to make fine sugar, till, in the time
of the Mongols, certain men from the West taught the art.[2] It is a
curious illustration of the passage that in India coarse sugar is commonly
called Chini, "the produce of China," and sugar candy or fine sugar
Misri, the produce of Cairo (Babylonia) or Egypt. Nevertheless, fine
Misri has long been exported from Fo-kien to India, and down to 1862
went direct from Amoy. It is now, Mr. Phillips states, sent to India by
steamers via Hong-Kong. I see it stated, in a late Report by Mr. Consul
Medhurst, that the sugar at this day commonly sold and consumed throughout
China is excessively coarse and repulsive in appearance. (See Academy,
February, 1874, p. 229.) [We note from the Returns of Trade for 1900,
of the Chinese Customs, p. 467, that during that year 1900, the following
quantities of sugar were exported from Amoy: Brown, 89,116 piculs,
value 204,969 Hk. taels; white, 3,708 piculs, 20,024 Hk.
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