What Drove the Sugar Trade? The sugar trade began in 1655 and became a big deal to Britain. Wealthy men would buy property, produce sugar, and sell it to their home country for a low price. (Document 7) Sugar was a product that could be bought and sold easily, since it was in high demand. (Document 3) This meant that England gained money. And what do you gain with money? Power. 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. People wanted more and …show more content…
And you can’t just pull up a plantation from nowhere, you have to build many buildings, and pay for labor too. Many people didn 't want to labor at sugar plantations. Because of the hot temperature and the other dangerous things you would have to be around. And plantation owners didn’t want to pay a lot of money for laborers. The solution, slaves. The more slaves the more sugar that could be produced was the idea that most plantation owners had. These slaves were owned by wealthy British men. The rich men had enough money to buy lots of slaves and produce lots of sugar. This brings back the main idea because none of the sugar could have been produced without any of the labor. Labor is the beginning to this story of the Sugar Trade and without that chapter, it would be incomplete. England at the end of this all had more money coming in than out. The sugar plantations, owned by wealthy people, had to be built. And the building of the plantation cost a lot of money. They also needed supplies, which brought in even more money. England created laws that permitted more money to come in than out. And since money creates power, England 's power
The Sugar Act of 1764 (or Revenue Act) was an attempt to reduce the debt encountered by England after the Seven Years’ War. Prime Minister George Grenville was the one to enforce it. The problem was that merchants and gentry were not pleased with the Act. Consequently, they protested against it. In addition, another Act, called the Stamp Act, was declared a year later.
The British Parliament made the colonists angry by implementing a multitude of different taxes to help carry the financial burden that was going on in Britain and in the Colonies; in some aspects the British used the money to help the colonies, but Parliament often took the taxes too far. The first major act that that will be looked at is the Sugar Act of 1764. The reason that this first tax (act) was implemented was to regulate the smuggling of sugar and molasses into the colonies from the French and the West Indies, or any other non-British Caribbean sources, hence the name “Sugar” act. The act itself was a revamped version of the 1733 Molasses act. Basically, the act was set up to create a monopoly for the British plantations in the West
Because it is so addictive, the people of England found it difficult to consume sugar because of these cravings, thus causing the demand for sugar to increase. After the introduction of chocolate and tea into the British diet, sugar became more popular because these new products established a connection with sugar (Doc. 4). In other words, chocolate and tea could not be sold without sugar. Because tea was the
Analyze the differences and similarities between the societies and economies of the southern, middle and New England Colonies. Southern, Middle, and New Egeland colonies had lots of differences in society and economic ways. For example, in the Southern Colonies they would grow rice and tobacco sugar cane, and indigo. They lived in a warm weather and was plenty of rain for the crops to grow which they used the slaves to work in the fields long hours of the day from dawn to dark.
After the French and Indian war, Britain was in heavy debt and needed to acquire as much revenue as possible. Britain was so desperate for money, they did not care how they received the money and whose rights they violated in the process. Because of this unjust mindset, Britain was not merciful when creating ways to collect revenue. The British methods for acquiring money were purposeful but not just.
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.
Britain had built up a great debt and the colonies were a financial burden to run, to try and resolve their problems the British instituted various measures
Finally, the large plantation owners were the final class of the South, they were able to own hundreds of slaves and some would treat them harshly. In spite of this, these people made up a very tiny portion of the population. Therefore, they would need to use their
No matter your stance at the time, one thing became clear: socially, politically and economically, slavery was the fabric of American success and gave birth to the Old South as we know it today. At the center of the entire institution of slavery, and central to its defense, was the economic domination it provided a young country in international markets. In the early 19th century, cotton was a popular commodity and overtook sugar as the main crop produced by slave labor. The production of cotton became the nation’s top priority; America supplied ¾ of the cotton supply to the entire world.
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.
Imagine if the cotton businesses had no slaves the Southerners would have to create their own factories, for example, if they did have to create their own industry, they would have to sell all their slaves and that’s one of the last things that they wanted to do. If the South had no slaves, they would have to do everything all by themselves. According to page 242 it says " planters would have had to sell slaves to raise the money to build factories, most wealthy southerners had their wealth invested in land and slaves. Planters would have had to sell slaves to raise the money to build factories. Most wealthy southerners were unwilling to do this.
Since sugar cane had been introduced to West Indies, the techniques of sugar production, exploitation of labor, and economic organization developed on these islands were easily exported to the new world. Ultimately, the adoption of these production techniques and the system of colonial government from the Atlantic islands, with the institution of slavery, made sugar production the most profitable cultivation in the Americas. By the sixteenth century, both demand and prices had risen because refined sugar was replacing honey in most recipes and was increasingly used as a sweetener in jams, jellies and other popular food products across Europe. White Gold, as British colonists called it, was the engine of the slave trade that brought millions of Africans to the Americas beginning in the early sixteenth century. Profits from the sugar trade were so significant that it may have even helped America achieve independence from Great
Britain needed a way to fix this. They came up with the Sugar Act, a set of taxes to help Britain raise money. Taxes were not a new thing for the colonists, but these new taxes caused big issues. The Sugar Act was suggested by Prime Minister George Greenville.
The colonies stopped giving their goods to England. They smuggled them and traded them in the Caribbean to make more money to benefit themselves. The people were going against England’s back. Because the colonies were not stopped, they believed they could do whatever they wanted. This led to major conflicts.
Anup Shah stated, “The slave trade was a major factor in the expansion of the sugar industries” (Allyn and Bacon, 1999,P 215). Most of European slaves were Africans. Africans were the major source of getting sugar. The main point of African slaves was economic. In early 16th century, an African slave was sold for only £7.