Sugar trade

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Sugar is perhaps one of the oldest and best known commodities in the world. The discovery of sugar dates back to 510 B.C. where soldiers of the Emperor Darius (Darius the Great) near the Indus River discovered "reeds which produce honey without bees". This discovery did not create a huge impact in those times, and it is said that sugar was then re-discovered by Alexander the Great who eventually spread it into the Mediterranean and from there it spread through Europe. What promoted the great sugar trade of the 1700s and 1800s? Many factors can be put into consideration. Some historians believe that, as the Europeans colonized more land and realized the availablility of African slaves, the slave trade grew dramatically. A large portion of these slaves were used in Sugar plantations in the colonized Americas. The boost in free labor gave Europeans a huge gain in economics and allowed them to have greater imports of sugar. This Sugar Trade was fundamentally important because having sugar at your table was a large status symbol in Europe. The sweetness of the refined sugar is hardly resistible. Countries like England began to use the mercantile trading system to ensure a favorable balance of trade. The sugar trade in the 18th century was one of the greatest sources of revenue to countries like England, who used the money to finance their wars and to achieve eventual dominance against the other colonial powers.

Sources:

Roden, Philip.  "Life and Liberty".  Illinois: Gleniview 1987.