MAURITIUS :12 LUXURY HOMES AT NORTH BROOM ESTATE UP FOR SALE
BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU,LAGOS,NIGERIA...
At least 12 luxury Homes in the Indian ocean archipelago of
Mauritius ,believed to be in The French Riviera typed city,Port Louis is
beginning to tantalize the investing public as at press time...
An impeccable source had told The E.N.M.Paedia Express
Multimedia Group of Lagos,Nigeria that about 12 of the beautiful houses in the
North Broom Estates were up for grabs with each of them going for as much as
1.4milion euro each..
He revealed that as at press time ,6 of them had being
acquired thus leaving another 6 yet to sold by the real estate managers
involved in the transactions which was
not disclosed to this medium...
While paying tributes to the Island nation's economy ,he
noted that they had the best economy on the continent based on per capital
income of $11,500 with their passport being the 34th most respected globally..
He affirmed that a
Mauritius passport after an investment by an investor could be procured
at the rate of 25 dollars under a week .
He listed Tourism,Finance and Agriculture as the strength of
Mauritius Economy while stating that the
nation's agricultural sector which warehouses
Sugar cane production was the most advance on the continent...
He added that Port Louis ,Mauritius was only four hours by
air travel from South Africa...
How Mauritius became a sugarcane economy
Updated
: August 22, 2018 07:47 AM IST
In the beginning, sugarcane was primarily used by the Dutch
settlers to make arrack from molasses, a by-product of sugar manufacturing.
The Wilhems brothers are said to have founded the first sugar
factory. Things took a sweet turn with the arrival of Jean Boekelberg, a
surgeon, who had studied the sugar industry in Suriname and successfully used
his knowledge within this fledgling industry.
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Not many can pronounce Adriaan van der Stel
correctly. His designation as ‘opperhoofd’ (headman) is an absolute
tongue-twister. But in Mauritius the name of this Dutchman hangs heavy in the
air; stories about him oft-repeated in the tiny Indian Ocean island. When he
hopped off a ship on November 8, 1639, and set foot on the island’s silken
sand, he was not alone - he brought along sheep, pigeons, geese, rabbits,
ducks. But the most precious commodity was the sapling of a tall grass lying
lazily in his basket. der Stel had brought sugarcane saplings from Java. That
red sugarcane changed the history of Mauritius.
Mauritius
was discovered by the Arabs. In the early 16th century, the Portuguese were the
first Europeans to visit the island which was successively colonised by the
Dutch, the French and the British. The country gained independence in 1968.
Photo Credit - Preeti Verma Lal
In the beginning, sugarcane was primarily used
by the Dutch settlers to make arrack from molasses, a by-product of sugar
manufacturing. The Wilhems brothers are said to have founded the first sugar
factory. Things took a sweet turn with the arrival of Jean Boekelberg, a
surgeon, who had studied the sugar industry in Suriname and successfully used
his knowledge within this fledgling industry.
An
artistic rendition of an African slave working in a French sugar plantation.
Photo Credit- Preeti Verma Lal
Sugar was first manufactured in 1696. The
Dutch abandoned Mauritius in 1710 and with the arrival of the French
colonisers, sugar production touched 477 tonnes in 1812, soaring to 10,841
tonnes in 1825. Production increased dramatically after 1825 when tariff reform
made Mauritian sugar competitive with that produced in the West Indies. Soon,
Mauritius’ economy was dominated by one crop - sugarcane. By 1834, sugar
accounted for nearly 85% of the colony’s exports.
An
old photograph of early Indian indentured labourer working in a Mauritius sugar
plantation. Photo Credit- Preeti Verma Lal
With the abolition of slavery, the British
devised the system of indentured labourers (Mauritius was the first country to
have indentured labourers). The first batch of Indian labourers arrived in
Mauritius on November 3, 1834. Their 5-year contract included free to & fro
passage; Rs 5 per month as wage (Rs 4 for women); 6 months advance pay, free
ration, accommodation and clothing. The men/women were registered, given a
number as identity and allocated to British-owned sugar plantations.
A
sugar plantation in Frederica Reserve. Photo Credit- Preeti Verma Lal
The introduction of indentured labourers
turned Mauritius into the most important sugar colony of the British Empire. By
1855, the island was producing nearly 7% of the world’s sugar.
In 1858, there were about 259 sugar mills in
Mauritius. By 1862, sugar production reached 150,000 tonnes from 52 000
hectares of cane. However, due to the process of centralisation, where
family-owned sugar estates were merged into companies, the number of sugar
mills have decreased to 137 sugar mills in 1888 and 79 sugar mills in 1903.
Between 1834 and 1910 when the indentured
system was abolished in Mauritius, 346,145 men and 105,896 women arrived from
India, mainly from what are now Bihar, Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and
Maharastra. Of the total 452,041 arrivals, only 167,570 returned to India after
the completion of their 5-year contract.
Sugar
Factory chimney in Frederica Nature Reserve in Domaine de Bel Ombre. Frederica
Estate was created in 1823 followed by the construction of a sugar factory in
1855. The factory shut down in 1874 due to its remote location. Photo
Credit-Preeti Verma Lal
Sugar production remains an important
contributor to the country's economy with sugar exports representing about 19%
of foreign exchange earnings and 1% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) - the other two big contributors being textiles (8.7% of GDP) and tourism
(7.5% of GDP). Today, Mauritius contributes 1% to the world’s total sugar
production. There are only 4 functional sugar mills that produce 375,000 tonnes
sugar annually. Nearly all the sugar produced in Mauritius is exported at an
approximate value of US$ 200 million.
When he hopped off the ship in 1639 with a
tall grass in his basket, Adriaan van der Stel could not have imagined the
impact of sugarcane on the history and economy of Mauritius. That one basket of
cane turned an island into a Sugarcane Republic.
additional reporting from Google
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