The rapid growth of sugar as a food has a long and intertwining history that originated in New Guinea. Following the production, consumption, and power that corresponds with sugar, one is able to see numerous causes and effects of the changes underway in the world between 1450 and 1750. The production of sugar in the Americas eventually led to not only the creation of the Atlantic Slave Trade, but also enhanced commerce. Consumption of sugar through rapid trade thoroughly helped to develop modern capitalism. The power that sugar generated dramatically changed the economic, social, and political fate of the nation as a whole. Geographically, sugar made its way around the world rather rapidly once it first left Indonesia. Sugar cane was first One of the most significant causes that came out of sugar production was the Atlantic Slave Trade. “The vast majority of the African captives transported across the Atlantic, some 80 percent or more, ended up in Brazil and the Caribbean (Strayer 568).” Once the Portuguese and British brought sugar to the Americas, they came to the realization that the land was fertile. This opened up a vast array of possibilities that could not progress without the aid of increased labor. Out of this need for increased labor, slavery arises and proceeds to spread. Slaves worked on sugar-producing estates or plantations in horrible conditions. The extensive use of African slave labor gave these plantation colonies an extremely different ethnic makeup in comparison to that of Spanish America. The search for slaves leads to Africa where the “trade triangle” is produced. This triangle of trade includes the Americas, Africa, and Britain. First, Africa provides slaves for the Americas. In the Americas, the slaves are then used to cultivate the sugar production. The Americas have greater sugar production which then enables them to transport sugar to Britain in exchange for other goods and services such as silver and spices. Britain continued to trade with Africa in order to keep the cycle functioning. This triangle of trade allowed commerce to expand and “...it’s employment in social settings by even the least privileged and poorest of Britain’s citizens; and the significance of sugar for the empire, for the king, and for the classes whose wealth would be made and secured by the growing productivity of British labor at home and British enterprise abroad (Mintz 155).” With this knowledge, sugar was not always a source of profit within the empire. Multiple times, investors or even planters ended up bankrupt. In Sweetness and Power, Sidney W. Mintz goes so far as to say, “Its cumulative value to crown and capital alike were enormous (Mintz 156).” The availability and cost of sugar were the direct consequences of imperial policies that took form in a way of what it would become in the future rather than what it was at the time. Even as African and Asian colonies came into sugar cane cultivation, sugar continued to be consumed in increasing quantities. The power of sugar led to major advancements within the economy between the period of 1450 to 1750. The long-term economic achievements of the new commodity markets stayed consistent even though some individuals did lose out. Overproduction of sugar became an issue and in a way affected the entire Atlantic economy. The global economy has a sweet tooth which only encouraged the emphasis put on the power of sugar. How could something so loved by the world not affect the economy? Besides the
Sugar was first grown in New Guinea around 9000 years ago, which New guinea traders trade cane stalks to different parts of the world. In the New world christopher columbus introduced cane sugar to caribbean islands. At first sugar was unknown in Europe but was changed when sugar trade first began. Sugar trade was driven by the factors of production land which provided all natural resources labor what provided human resources for work and capital which includes all the factories and the money that’s used to buy land. Consumer demand was why sugar trade continued to increase.
Kit-kats, Hershey bars, Skittles, and Jolly Ranchers. The reason these sweets, and many other products, are so popular is because of their sugar content. It’s hard to imagine that something used in nearly every food today was practically nonexistent at one point. But this is true- sugar wasn’t introduced globally until the 1500’s. Following this introduction, the trade that sprung up would come to be one of the most successful and profitable in the world. The Sugar Trade’s success was driven by many factors. Out of those several factors, the ones that promised success were high consumer demand, willing investors with a lot of capital, and the usage of slave labor.
was only eight years old. Raw sugar was then imported to the Imperial Sugar Company refinery in Sugar Land. By the 1940s the population
The trans-Atlantic trade of African slaves contributed to maintaining progression of labor systems as well as promoting change in the British North American colonies. The slaves provided labor and helped produce the cash crops that were then exported to Europe where they traded the goods to trade with Africans for more slaves. The Africans enslaved each other and sold more slaves to be sent to the colonies in
The trading of products and goods between the old world and new world led to economical and population issues. Although they benefited from trading at first, it introduced several problems (Doc 1, Doc 5, & Doc 7). The Americas shipped sugar, rice, wheat, coffee, bananas, and grapes to the Europeans and in return, the Europeans shipped enumerated articles back such as tobacco, beans, maize, tomato, cacao, cotton, and potato (Doc 5). Through the trading of products and goods, diseases were introduced by the Europeans (Doc 5). Not too long after diseases began to spread, the economy shifts to a large scale of agricultural production resulting in slavery, using black slaves to harvest cash crops such as sugar cane (Doc 1). Two specific products,
Following the success of Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the Americas in the early16th century, the Spaniards, French and Europeans alike made it their number one priority to sail the open seas of the Atlantic with hopes of catching a glimpse of the new territory. Once there, they immediately fell in love the land, the Americas would be the one place in the world where a poor man would be able to come and create a wealthy living for himself despite his upbringing. Its rich grounds were perfect for farming popular crops such as tobacco, sugarcane, and cotton. However, there was only one problem; it would require an abundant amount of manpower to work these vast lands but the funding for these farming projects was very scarce in fact it was just about nonexistent. In order to combat this issue commoners back in Europe developed a system of trade, the Triangle Trade, a trade route that began in Europe and ended in the Americas. Ships leaving Europe first stopped in West Africa where they traded weapons, metal, liquor, and cloth in exchange for captives that were imprisoned as a result of war. The ships then traveled to America, where the slaves themselves were exchanged for goods such as, sugar, rum and salt. The ships returned home loaded with products popular with the European people, and ready to begin their journey again.
the Portuguese had a sudden interest in Brazil because of French and Spanish invaders, and because of the economic downfall that was taking place in India. The Spanish were succeeding in Peru, which in turn made the Portuguese bitter, but the Portuguese still believed that Brazil had a value yet to be discovered. The thriving of Brazil finally came with the introduction of sugarcane during the mid-sixteenth century, but the Portuguese did not see much success until after 1570. Sugarcane trade was primarily in control of Muslims; prior to expanding their empires, the Europeans made a devastating political choice of expelling Moors from Europe, which in turn caused the Muslims to stop sugar trade with the Europeans. Therefore, sugar became
Cotton, spices, silk, and tea from Asia mingled in European markets with ivory, gold, and palm oil from Africa; furs, fish, and timber from North America; and cotton, sugar, and tobacco from both North and South America. The lucra¬tive trade in enslaved human beings provided cheap labor where it was lacking. The profits accrued in Europe, increasingly in France and Britain as the Portuguese, Spanish, and then Dutch declined in relative power. It was a global network, made possible by the advancing tech¬nology of the colonialists.
According to R. Greenwood, S. Hamber and B. Dyde in their book Amerindians to Africans they support the argument that there was a sugar revolution in the Caribbean. In the Caribbean, especially Barbados there was a change of diversified agriculture to practicing monoculture cultivating sugar was a result of the falling prices in West Indian tobacco and other crops like ginger and cotton. Barbados and other islands had competition from Virginia who was producing cheaper tobacco therefore these islands were forced to find another crop to bring in foreign revenue. Along with other factors such as Dutch expansion and a great demand for sugar in Europe, suga...
Despite the federal aid granted to sugar growers, not all sectors of agriculture devoted to growing sugar derivatives flourished. Domestic production of sugar cane increased steadily from 1982 onward, while sugar beet production stagnated (Knutson, 1985). Through time, the largest number of sugar beet farmers were concentrated in a specific West/Midwest region of the U.S. (Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho) while sugar cane farmers were found in the Southeast, specifically Louisiana and Florida.
Slaves and slave trade has been an important part of history for a very long time. In the years of the British thirteen colonies in North America, slaves and slave trade was a very important part of its development. It even carried on to almost 200 years of the United States history. The slave trade of the thirteen colonies was an important part of the colonies as well as Europe and Africa. In order to supply the thirteen colonies efficiently through trade, Europe developed the method of triangular trade. It is referred to as triangular trade because it consists of trade with Africa, the thirteen colonies, and England. These three areas are commonly called the trades “three legs.”
The production of sugarcane and cotton in the New World increased the urgency for laborers in the new colonies, in which led to the major importation of African slaves. These plantations and farms, in the New World sparked the golden business of slave trading, a business that will guide the Dutch to economic wealth. The Dutch entered the slave trade around the 16th...
Though sugar was rare before the Sugar Revolution, Europeans today consume the most sugar per capita. The Sugar Revolution did not stop in the Caribbeans; it spread to other places like India. Though the sugarcane originated from India, the sugar industry was further developed under the British Raj. India is currently the second largest producer of sugar after Brazil. Though the Sugar Revolution is generally considered to be an economic revolution, there were also many political effects. Without the Sugar Revolution, there would not be as many Africans, descendants of slaves, today in the Caribbeans. Without the slaves in the Caribbeans, there would have been no Haitian Revolution, no successful slave rebellions in history. With no successful slave rebellion, Haiti would not have been able to gain independence until the period of decolonization of the mid and late 20th century. An event did not occur in a local region does not necessarily mean that it has negligible effects in other regions. The lack of a bloody overthrow of the government does not necessarily mean that it has not brought change. The lack of precious metals does not necessarily mean that it will not contribute to the global
With such an obsession with sweet foods, there is an obvious desire for an explanation of how such a once unknown substance took center stage on everybody's snack, dessert, and candy list. That's where Sidney W. Mintz comes into play. He decided to write this book Sweetness and Power, and from the looks of all the sources he used to substantiate his ideas and data, it seems that he is not the first person to find the role that sugar plays in modern society important. By analyzing who Mintz's audience is meant to be, what goals he has in writing this book, what structure his book incorporates, what type, or types, of history he represents within the book, what kind of sources he uses, and what important information and conclusions he presents, we can come to better understand Mintz's views and research of the role of sugar in history, and how much it really affects our lives as we know them.
It has been argued that the sugar revolution has affected the Caribbean drastically as a result of the sugar revolution; economically there was a labour problem which was caused by the change from Tobacco to Sugar. “The manufacturing of Sugar cultivation was much needed for some workers to practice manual labour.” (Galen son, 1989: 112). There were people who tried to get workers like the Spaniards who tried to get the Arawak to w...