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The Sugar Trade: The Slave Trade

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The sugar trade was a million pound industry (today many billions of dollars) that forced a great migration of African people, a handful of empires expanding, and large amounts of wealth dealt to people who have never set foot in the west indies. The sugar trade was a trade between England and others to the West Indies back to England and others and around the world. The sugar trade was driven by wealthy families of England, the popularity of sugar and, also by the hard work of slaves. Wealthy families provided capital so the sugar trade would work. If you were to buy a 500 acre sugar plantation you would need at least “a sugar development plant consisting of several buildings, slave huts, a stable, several shops and stores, 300 slaves, 150 …show more content…

“The increased consumption of sugar and increasing demand for it, exceed all...for, such is the influence of sugar, that once touching the nerves of taste no person was ever known to have the power of relinquishing the desire for it.” The need for sugar is not surprising because no one can’t get hooked on it the second after they taste it. Because of this people want more and more sugar to feed their need of sugar. Without this need the sugar trade would not be this huge. According to a Duke university study in England over than span of 70 years in 1700-1770 the imports of sugar not only stayed inconsistent with the rise population but exceeds it, at the same time per capita consumption nearly quadruples. Sugar was needed by these men, women, and children so much that 10% of all their food purchased was sugar. All this need for sugar made the sugar trade so …show more content…

Document 10 states by the year 1800 slave populations in only 4 islands were almost 1,000,000 people and sugar productions was twice that a year. The slaves produced so much sugar it fed europe too massive extents. Without the slaves there would be no sugar and no sugar trade. In the British Library there are two images depicting Africans doing hard labor on sugar plantations in the west indies with only one white person who was an overseer. Without the slave trade being apart of the sugar trade it would crumble because this work was so hard on people the only people who could do it were slaves and the sugar trade would have never existed without them. The sugar trade was a massive industry run by wealthy families in europe owning and profiting from it but slaves running it. This strengthened the economy of both the indies and Europe to leave a baseline wealth that we still see there today. It was a vital industry that help these developing nations in the

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The wealth they created mostly returned to Britain, the products they made were consumed in Britain. African slavery was considered “essential” to the sugar producing system. There created two major triangles of trade, which connected nations of the world Britain, Africa, West Indies and the New World. One important feature of these triangles is human cargoes. The documentary on Big Sugar by Brian McKenna supports Mintz’s ideas by revealing the dark side of working on the plantations, and the terrible working conditions that the labors (or slaves) back then had to suffer.

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DBQ Essay – What Drove the Sugar Trade? Beginning in the late 1600s and continuing through the 1700s the demand for sugar became incredibly high due to its addictive qualities. To supply the consumers with sugar they were craving, wealthy Europeans established sugar plantations throughout the Caribbean and built a thriving slave industry, so their need for cheap labor could be satisfied. Sugar consumption increased from 4.6lbs to 16.2lbs per capita annually from 1700 to 1770 due to the increasing addiction of the consumers.

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First, the Sugar Act was mainly about controlling the trade of rum. Rum was a profitable product, and rum was made from molasses. The molasses was imported into the colonies in large amounts from large plantation owners in the British West Indies and used for rum. Great Britain was providing cheap labor from Africa and making them work in the sugarcane plantations in the West Indies. From there, the West Indies sent the molasses to the colonies in America.

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Sugar was one of the most demanding goods, thus, the sugar production increased dramatically. Slaves played a huge part in this since they were the ones who help produce sugar. If it was not for the distilled drinks, then the slave trade would not have been so big and caused disputes about slavery. Journal #8.

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In American Colonies, Alan Taylor argues that “the sugar boom revolutionized the economy, landscape, demography and social structure of Barbados.” (p.210). Sugar became very important for everyone who grew it, especially in Barbados. By 1660, Barbados made the most sugar consumed by England. This made “more trade and capital than all other English colonies combined.”

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On today, I will be talking about my topic that I have chosen for my research paper which is called The Sugar Act of 1764. I will be sharing background and general information about my topic that has changed throughout the year which some don’t know and probably don’t remember inside of an history class that they have taken. As during this research experience I’ve learned so much and the information I received help me gain more knowledge than what I already knew about the topic I’ve chosen. So with that before the Sugar Act came along it was known as others but no one knew that but their names before was the American Revenue Act and the American Duties Act. The Sugar Act “was a British Law passed by the Parliament of Great Britain and

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The Portuguese took sugar cane grass from South and East Asia and they planted it in Brazil. Then, they sold the cane sugar to Europe and North America. This sale made North America involved with the Triangle Trade. “The triangle trade fed the innovation-driven insatiability of British mills. Only after industrialization could advanced nations benefit from free trade, and they used their empires to force it on the developing world.”

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The high demand for sugar was increasing more and more every day. Between 1700 and 1770, the amount of sugar produced and consumed quadrupled. Sugar is often added into other imports, such as tea, coffee and chocolate. These three things have something in common that is a big factor in the demand for sugar. They are all stimulants.

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The European countries founded colonies in the Americas because they could buy cheap resources from their colonies, the colonies would serve as captive markets, and they could collect taxes from the colonists. Colonies were only allowed to trade resources with their mother country and their mother country wanted to buy resources as cheaply as possible. This meant that the colonists had to sell resources to their mother country at low prices even if they could sell their resources for more elsewhere. After buying resources from their colonies, the mother country would make refined goods to sell back to their colonies at a high price with a large profit. The colony would have to buy the goods from their mother country because they could not buy from anyone else, thus creating captive markets.

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Much like it did during the slave trade, Britain obtained numerous valuable materials through trade and many found jobs in shipbuilding. In conclusion, the slave trade was the most important factor to the development of the British economy in the 18th century. Although the industrial revolution and trade with empire countries created many new jobs, the slave trade created jobs from shipbuilding to factory work and resulted in Britain earning many new useful materials. It also greatly improved British ports, as the money made was used to build expensive new

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The sugar trade, which began in the 16th century and lasted until the 19th century, was also considered a “triangle trade" that brought tremendous wealth and power to European colonizers and their respective nations. The trade, which involved the production and transportation of sugar from colonies in the Caribbean and South America to Europe, was driven by several factors, including the growing demand for sugar in Europe, an increase in population, and mercantilism. One of the primary factors that drove the sugar trade was the growing demand for sugar in Europe. Sugar was considered a luxury item in medieval Europe since it brought the great taste to the people.

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Long before Britain began penetrating the African continent, the American colonies were the lucrative source of income that helps to boost the economy back in England. There were expansion of cash crop plantations to fulfil the high demand of trade . Such plantation include cotton, sugar and tobacco. Britain utilized the natural resources to generate its own revenue in the expense of the colonies. Yet, the colonies had also flourished with the trade of import and export.

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Both of these contributed to a more global commerce since new crops could now be introduced to the Old World and silver was highly valued all over the world. The European settlers were aware of the aforementioned facts and took advantage of the rich lands that could be found in the Americas. They farmed extensively, and the Native American techniques for harvesting in difficult land helped them. Furthermore, knowing that South America had rich silver deposits, the mined for the valuable material to export it for profit. This remained mostly unchanged during this time since Europeans had no need to look for other sources of profit.

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This unprecedented global tragedy claimed millions of lives over four centuries, and left a terrible legacy that continues to dehumanize and subjugate people around the world to this day. The forced movement of West Africans across the Atlantic to the Caribbean happened on cutting-edge scale of brutality and inhumanity, killings and massive abuses. Millions died without a burial, without a trace. These Europeans paid no monetary price for their progress, but they incurred a terrible cost in the form of the of the root racism that we still battle today. The slave trade left an ineradicable mark.

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Sugar was important in the Industrial Revolution because it encouraged more productive sugar factories, fueled factory labor, and contributed to the shift to a "free" trade system. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, sugar was produced by colonial plantations utilizing coerced labor (slavery). Though slaves were not paid, the costs of sugar production kept prices high, making sugar a luxury good inaccessible to common people. Following the Industrial Revolution, factories with better technologies created highly productive sugar plantations, increasing the supply of sugar. With the adoption of free trade and thus the economic theory of fluctuating markets, sugar was sold at lower prices to accommodate the higher supply.

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