How Did Sugar Trade Affect The Atlantic World

After his voyage to the Americas in 1493, Columbus returned from his trip with a good so influential, it would single handedly change the world. Sugar fundamentally changed the economics, power, and demographic of the Atlantic World. Because of the immense demand of the addictive additive, sugar was a highly profitable industry, and with the recent development of trading companies, profit relating to sugar skyrocketed, further fueling the industry. Making sugar required intense labor, which made the Europeans have to find a cheap source of labor that would support the Atlantic World System. They found their workforce in Africa, where slaves could be traded for manufactured goods from Europe. At the root of both these factors layed demand, which

As global trade developed, with Europeans sailing to Africa and Asia, traders had to find ways to finance their long and expensive journeys. This financing issue led to the development of the first trading company, an organization where you could buy shares of trade expeditions. Once these companies immersed themselves in the sugar and slave trade, investments and revenue increased dramatically. In his work, Capitalism and Slavery, Eric Williams explains how the newly formed trading firms allowed all people to profit off of the sugar trade. During this period, roughly 10 large firms had monopolized the English slave trade. They began to sell shares in their business, which meant that every person that invested in a voyage would receive part of the proceeds from the trip. The ventures were divided up in many ways, making them accessible to people of all different economic standings (Doc 8). Williams’s explanation highlights how the new structure of shares was made accessible to many, allowing those who were not excessively wealthy to participate in the highly profitable sugar industry. This new introduction of people into the trading system meant

Around the same time, the British Parliament was considering taxing imported and exported goods like sugar, an action that could affect the entirety of the British sugar production Samuel Dicker wrote in his letter to the English Parliament about the importance of maintaining a strong trade and production of sugar. Dicker commented on the effects of the possible decrease of production due to taxes: “And should the sugar colonies be so much discouraged…which may enable them from carrying on their works making the quantity of sugar which they do at present… you see plainly how very much our trade and, and how many of our manufacturers would be affected by it.” (Doc 11). Dicker explains that if the British were to affect the trade between the Atlantic colonies, the repercussions would be felt throughout all of society. If the trade was diminished, trade companies would lose profit and so would their common investors, merchants and attorneys. The chokehold sugar had on the economy and the fear of losing revenue allowed the sugar trade to continue freely, which in turn laid the