Slave Trade: What Drove Sugar Trade?

What drove sugar trade?
Sugar was first grown in New Guinea around 9000 years ago, which New guinea traders trade cane stalks to different parts of the world. In the New world christopher columbus introduced cane sugar to caribbean islands. At first sugar was unknown in Europe but was changed when sugar trade first began. Sugar trade was driven by the factors of production land which provided all natural resources labor what provided human resources for work and capital which includes all the factories and the money that’s used to buy land. Consumer demand was why sugar trade continued to increase.
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

taste better with sugar these goods became more popular which increased sugar production by consumer demand for these goods. In A treatise on Sugar With Miscellaneous Medical Observations by Benjamin Moseley “ 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(3b)” because sugar is addicting to people sugar trade increased tremendously. Stated by Ralph A. Austin and woodruff D. Smith Social Science “sugar consumption approached nearly 10 percent of overall food expenditures for some families in england in the 1700s(5)” because british population was increasing british sugar imports increased as well.
Land helped the sugar trade by providing raw materials and natural resources.Sugar plantation could not be just anywhere. For successful sugar production the island temperature must be around 68 degrees to 90 degrees fahrenheit, the soil type must be volcanic or alluvial (sand or clay mix), and rainfall has to be around 80 to 90 inches per year. With all the things that are needed to grow cane sugar only some places actually have the correct location and climate to grow cane sugar stalks. Because the climate for caribbean islands such as Jamaica and Barbados almost have the perfect climate for growing cane sugar which allowed sugar cane stalks to grow for trading(2). The Spanish, British, and French were the main people in the sugar industry on the islands of the caribbean. The british owned most of the caribbean islands. Though british owned a lot of islands the Spanish owned a lot of land and not as many islands, the french also owned territory in the caribbean(1). Ton of sugar is produced in each colony, from 1712 to 1817 sugar production increased. Colonies such as barbados, Jamaica, Saint-Domingue, and Cuba. The british colony barbados and Jamaica expanded sugar production in years 1703 to 1789 from 4,782 to 59,400. Because of the huge increase of sugar production sugar trade grew larger (10).
Slave labor was a way for sugar plantation owners to have human resources used to work for less money.

Sugar plantations have a field where sugar cane stalks are cut and grown and then there are boiling house where sugar cane stalks are crushed and boiled which is all runned by slave labor. Because slaves planted the cane stalks, harvested sugar stalks, crushed them, and boiled the sugar stalks sugar was made(8). According to David richardson the slave Trade, Sugar, and British Economic growth, “An Average purchase price of adult male slave on west African coast in 1748 was 14£ and in 1768 was 16£”(9a).Because slaves were so cheap slave traders may profit by, selling adult male slaves to sugar plantation owners for twice as much as they bought them in Africa. John Campbell Candid and Impartial Considerations on the Nature of the Sugar Trade describes the slaves as “so necessary Negro slaves purchased in Africa by English merchants”(11). Because africa trade slaves to English merchants Africans got things they did not

have.
Capital has two parts which includes all factories, boiling house and money. Sugar plantations require a lot of buildings, animals, and human resources. In A Treatise Upon Husbandry or Planting by William Belgrove “ A Sugar plantation of 500 Acres of land”(6) this is important because the second part of capital is “investment capital” is money used to buy the requirement that are needed for a sugar plantation. Peter Macinnis wrote, “This is the first curse of sugar: it is capital intensive”(7). According to Philip Roden Life and Liberty “the parliament in English passed a series of laws dealing with colonial shipping, trade, manufacturing and money. The point of these laws was to set up a trading system based on was good for the mother country, which called the mercantilism or mercantile system… The result was national wealth that led to national power.”(12)
In conclusion, the sugar trade was mostly driven by the demand of consumers and the four factors of production. Which is are location, labor, and capital. Demand of citizens was why sugar trade increase. Sugar is still a huge part of our daily lives, It's branched out to many different countries now.