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By 1750, sugar surpassed grain as "the most valuable commodity in European trade — it made up a fifth of all European imports and in the last decades of the century four-fifths of the sugar came from the British and French colonies in the West Indies." [49] From the 1740s until the 1820s, sugar was Britain's most valuable import. [50]
The etymology of sugar reflects the commodity's spread. From Sanskrit śarkarā, meaning "ground or candied sugar", came Persian shakar and Arabic sukkar. The Arabic word was borrowed in Medieval Latin as succarum, whence came the 12th century French sucre and the English sugar. Sugar was introduced into Europe by the Arabs in Sicily and Spain. [4]
While initially a crop of the Indian subcontinent, the cultivation of sugar in the New World had significant effects on Spanish society. New World sugar cultivation added to the growing power of the Spanish and Portuguese economies while also increasing the popularity of slave labor (which had severe impacts on African, American, and European societies).
Sugar was the most important crop throughout the Caribbean, although other crops such as coffee, indigo, and rice were also grown. Sugar cane was best grown on relatively flat land near coastal waters, where the soil was naturally yellow and fertile; mountainous parts of the islands were less likely to be used for cane cultivation.
Sugar was originally introduced to Europe as a preservative and a medicine. European apothecaries adopted many of their practices from Arabic physicians. [4] Renaissance medicine partly relied on diet. Dieticians recommended consuming sugar to prevent adverse effects believed to arise from other foods.
After the Sugar Act 1764 was instated, exports fell in the coming years, according to records. On the other hand, mainland rum production rose during those years. The Sugar Act 1764 was later repealed by the Revenue Act 1766, and a penny-per-gallon tax was placed on British and foreign molasses imports. This law marked the first large-scale ...
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The most productive sugar mills used African labor, while the smaller mills continued with the original indigenous labor. [5] The senhor de engenho was a farmer who owned the sugar production unit. The main destination of Brazilian sugar was the European market. [6] Besides sugar, the production of tobacco and cotton also stood out in Brazil at ...