Azaan Haider
5/6 A
Bailey
The Sugar Trade
The Adventure of Sugar
Sugar is something we all have some love for. We know it’s not the best for us, but it’s seems impossible to escape in modern times. Because it is in some many things, we consider the value of it to be very low. But there was a time when the demand and price was way higher than the average person could afford. This time was called the Sugar Trade. It lasted from 1655 to 1833. It was a big time in history as many people became rich. But many factors drove it. But in the main, the three factors that drove the Sugar Trade were the brutal forced labor of slaves to harvest and gather the sugar to spread it to Great Britain, the high demand of sugar that Britain needed to keep the
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In document 3a, you can see a huge mad rush. There is a hogshead barrel with sugar in it, and people are jumping into, licking the barrel, and just trying to get as much sugar as they can. What makes it even more shocking, is that the barrel has already been emptied! They are getting the last little grains left over when they dumped it out of that hogshead barrel. You can see that the people jumping in are mostly kids. This means that the demand for sugar was super high, because if people are willing to jump into a barrell and lick it clean, that says something. The reason it was so high was not only for its sweet taste, but because it's easily to be addicted to. This is proven in document 3b, when Benjamin Mosley says:”...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”. What this is basically is saying is that once you get your hands on a bit of sugar, you will never have enough of it. Your desire will keep increasing and never go down. Going back to document 3a, even though children were the ones diving in, sugar was most used with the adults. For one, they were the ones who bought it, but more importantly, they used it in their everyday consumables. It made everyday foods and drinks taste better. Once people started realizing and using and wanting to use sugar in these drinks, 2 things happened. One is that the demand skyrocketed. And two that these foods and drinks were not it without sugar. Tea was not tea without sugar. Coffee was not coffee without sugar. This is a big reason why the demand when so high so quickly. As shown in document 5, as years went by, from 1700 to 1770, the annual per capita consumption (How many pounds of sugar per person consumed)of sugar rose. In 1700 it was 4.6 pounds, and it rose to 16.2! That’s a 11.6 pound difference! Along with
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.
In document 7a, it tells when sugar got attention worldwide rich people started moving to the West Indies to grow because everyone wanted sugar and sugar makes you a lot of money. The more you consume sugar, the more you will start to
Through her choice of name, McFadden is placing value on sex worker’s bodies, professions, and themselves as people. McFadden raises the idea at several points in the novel that Sugar’s line of work may be her own choice, but readers are more directly led to believe that Sugar doesn’t have any real options outside of her sex work. The sugar trade also has a brutal history, mainly through the infamous Middle Passage. Goods were traded to Africa for slaves who in turn, were sent to the Caribbean which produced sugar and rum for England. Slaves working in the sugar plantations lived in miserable conditions with high mortality rates. The danger and vicious cycle of the slave trade can be compared to the dangerous life that sex workers lead. Sugar didn’t have a direct “master” or owner, however she did face many abusive men such as the one that left her with the gash before she returned to the Bedford house and Lappy at the end of the
Jon Gabriel explains how sugar has become an addictive drug like nicotine, the only difference is that its legal. Once we become hooked on it we become habituated to its effects and need more and more to satisfy ourselves. As a result of the increase in marketing and the on going dependence on sugary foods and beverages, children are taking in more and more sugar and obtaining less and less nutrients. According to Gentry Lasater,
The institution of slavery, from the year 1830 to 1860, created a divide between the northern and southern regions of the United States. Southerners, who relied on slaves to maintain their plantations, supported the institution, as it was a major part of their economy. Meanwhile, northerners, many of whom depended on slave produced cotton for textile mills and goods for the shipping industry, were divided on the slave issue, as some saw it as a blessing while the abolitionists saw it as a horrific institution. Overall, attitudes toward the institution of slavery, due to a variety of causes, differed in the varying regions in the United States from 1830 to 1860.
Is blood as sweet as sugar? In “Sugar Love,” Cohen delves within the history, demand, and the repercussions of sugar. He investigates the origin and the disclosed secrets of it by entailing the behind scenes of how sugar was collected, the location and the environment as well as the behaviors of others. He then ties in the popularity of sugar; how it spread like wildfire throughout the islands and how all social statuses craved it. Furthermore, Cohen embodies the kickback of sugar being blindsided by the blood of slaves and its sweet taste.
Why would anyone feel the need to write an entire book on such a mundane topic such as sugar? Look around at some food products you might have and you will realize that many if not all of them contain sugar in some form or another. For example, a can of soda, which most people drink everyday, contains (depending on the brand) approximately 40 grams of sugars. Look further and you might find that even things such as cheese or chips or soup contain several grams of sugar in them. The wide diversification of products that contain sugar just goes to show you how widespread the use of sugar really is. This fact alone could be enough to convince someone to create a book solely about sugar. One passage that Mintz quotes on page 15 that really seems to capture our (Westerners) infatuation with sugar, and a strong reason the book at hand is as follows:
Sugar in its many forms is as old as the Earth itself. It is a sweet tasting thing for which humans have a natural desire. However there is more to sugar than its sweet taste, rather cane sugar has been shown historically to have generated a complex process of cultural change altering the lives of all those it has touched, both the people who grew the commodity and those for whom it was grown. Suprisingly, for something so desireable knowledge of sugar cane spread vey slow. First found in Guinea and first farmed in India (sources vary on this), knowledge of it would only arrive in Europe thousands of years later. However, there is more to the history of sugar cane than a simple story of how something was adopted piecemeal into various cultures. Rather the history of sugar, with regards to this question, really only takes off with its introduction to Europe. First exposed to the delights of sugar cane during the crusades, Europeans quickly acquired a taste for this sweet substance. This essay is really a legacy of that introduction, as it is this event which foreshadowed the sugar related explosion of trade in slaves. Indeed Henry Hobhouse in `Seeds of Change' goes so far as to say that "Sugar was the first dependance upon which led Europeans to establish tropical mono cultures to satisfy their own addiction." I wish, then, to show the repurcussions of sugar's introduction into Europe and consequently into the New World, and outline especially that parallel between the suga...
Economic systems are affected by the two opposing systems of Capitalism and Communism. They each can meet the needs of people; however, both affect the lives of people in good and bad ways, affecting industrialized nations and nations in the process of being industrialized.
The Sugar Act of 1764, also known as the Revenue Act, was the first attempt by the British Parliament to raise revenue from the colonists. This act was basically a tax on trade––items that were brought into the colonies including: sugar, tea, coffee, wine, etc. The Act also allowed British officials, without court approval, to take goods they believed to be smug...
What might be the biggest contribution to what drove sugar trade is consumer demand. Many popular drinks weren’t sweet and sugar was used as a sweetener. According to Sydney Mintz’s sweetness and power, “sugar as sweetener came to the force in connection with three other exotic imports tea,coffee, and chocolate(4)” because tea, coffee and chocolate
Consequently, an accurate model must combine what we know from mainstream economics and political economy. Before outlining the theoretical framework, however, the following section reviews the history of the sugar subsidy.
Imagine this, it is the 1800’s and you’re shopping for sugar. You see the sweet, pure white sugar and look down. Wham! The price makes your stomach drop. You need a cup of sugar, and the price is five dollars per teaspoon. That’s two-hundred and forty dollars, and you only have two dollars with you! In the articles, How Candy Conquered America by Lauren Tarshis and This Cupcake is Trying to Hurt You by Kristin Lewis and Lauren Tarshis it talks about how the consumption of sugar changes over time from the 1800’s to today. Two ways sugar consumption in the United States differed in the 1800’s than today is how much sugar we eat and how it affects our bodies.
Mark Bittman’s article, “Taxing Sugar to Fund a city,” emphasizes that on one hand, the taxation of sugar sweetened beverages would be a bonus. On the other hand it could continue to not be supported by the people and government. Taxation of sugar sweetened beverages is being considered in many different places throughout the world. The taxation was becoming a failure everywhere, until it worked for the first time in several cities. Cites such as Northern California, San Francisco, Albany and Richmond. These cities opened up their ideas to this new type of taxation, once those places became supportive many others begin to also be supportive of this new taxation. Philadelphia plans to use the taxes received for the needy, community schools, public parks, recreation centers and libraries. Some cities support using the money this way rather than using the tax for safe free drinking water like in Berkley and Mexico. Taxed products
Probably some of the most pleasurable and enjoyable memories of a person has to do with sweets. When thinking back to birthdays, there is always the memory of the wonderful cake that mother beautifully made and decorated with frosting and glazes. A typical night out with dad can be transformed into a magical evening with a trip to the ice cream parlor. The end of a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner turns heavenly when a hot apple pie is brought to the table and topped with delicious, melting vanilla ice cream. A good wedding is never complete without the cutting of the splendid multi-level wedding cake, when the happy new couple gets to playfully shove and smear cake and white frosting into each other’s smiling faces. Everyone knows that as a child, the only good part about going to the dentist is getting the candy bar at the end of the visit. Why do some people get sick after eating too much suger? Some people do not even know that the abuse of sugar can lead to negative effects on your body. There is something strangely enjoyable and resplendent about the consumption of sugar. Why is it that sugar is so deliciously enjoyable and at the same time a food product that has many negative affects on people’s health?