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Our UK sugar comes from two sources, pretty equally Sugar Beet and Sugar Cane. Tate and Lyle have traditionally been made manufacturer to bring sugar cane here.
Where did sugar cane originate?
'A Dark History of Sugar' "delves into our evolutionary history to explain why sugar is so loved, yet is the root cause of so many bad things. "
Sugar cane was first cultivated in Papua New Guinea in 8,000 BCE
The variety there is almost identical to the main variety grown now called 'Creole'. The word 'Creole' is more associated witih the name of language, derived from Portugese Pidgen' - a v. simple language,that evolved as a result of the American Slaves who took it into the plantations where 100 of forms evolved - so bosses couldn't understand them...
Tate & Lyle - along with their former manager David Davis MP, have campaigned vociferously for Brexit for ages. After Dec 19 election I predicted that one of first changes would be to eliminate tariffs on cane sugar. And so it was on Jan1st 2020
The Portugese started to grow Sugar Cane plantation in Madeira in the 1450s. "A significant portion of the transatlantic slave trade developed as a result of the European love of sugar. Grown successfully in Morocco, and less successfully in other parts of the Mediterranean, sugar was a luxury item much coveted by the peoples of Christian Europe. However, most sugar-producing areas were in Islamic hands or were threatened by Islamic expansion, and this near-monopoly drove the prices upward. But as the Portuguese began exploring the coast of Africa, and thus the offshore islands of the Madeiras, Cape Verde, and Canaries in the early 15th century. It became apparent that some of these lands could support sugar cultivation. This proved a boon to the sweet- toothed Europeans who could now cultivate their own sugar without involving the "infidel" Muslims".
Henry the Navigator introduced Sugar Cane to Madeira in 1542. By 1500, Madeira sported 80 sugar mills and over 200 cane growers and became the largest exporter of sugar in the world. According to Ray Patel, this is were 'cash cropping' started, where the first crop became a commodity, and provided the basis of capitalism (Hear him on 'Evil Sugar Radio'). Till then, farmers had produced from themselves and neighbours and if there was more left over, it went to market. Here in Madeira the Portugese planted for one reason only - to make money. Sugar cane was the first crop grown purely for cash. Some people became immensely rich, because this is a completely different way of running the land. All sorts of instruments were developed to make the trade with Europe City of Sugar Museum
Christopher Como Human-Plant Relationships
And why sugar grown there? We know that - it is all about labour. The majority of slaves ended up on sugar (& cotton) plantations. (listen to 1st verse of Rolling Stones 'Brown Sugar')
The whole of Madeira was given over to sugar - either growing but also processing it. They had their own sugar mills - an early example of 'primitive accumulation'. This was an industry - where the farm and factory came together. From then on. growing for 'surplus' is pushed out by 'growing for cash' under the pressures of modern capitalism for global markets. It started here in Madeira around 1500.
"Sugar production spread to other of the Atlantic islands - first the Canaries, then Santiago in the Cape Verde islands. These islands, however, lacked the requisite rainfall for good cane culture, so the Portuguese, and later the Spanish, Dutch, and English would set their sights on other areas to continue expanding sugar production." Mariner Museum
Britain's first recorded consumer boycott was launched around the start of the 19th century by the catchily-named Anti-Saccharites. They campaigned against cane sugar because of the unethical and cruel use of slave labour. Some grocers reported sales falling by half.
It was the start of plantation agriculture, where monoculture took over relying on migrant workers for labour, which became the dominant mode of agricultural production. According to Marxists sugar cane plantations are the basis of capitalism, by creating 'primitive accumulation' a necessary precursor for capitalism.
The Portugese carried on opening up sugar plantations again importing slaves in Brazil through 1500s. This leads to coffee plantations..link
It was sugar that first made slavery important. The Sugar Boom developed first in Brazil. The Dutch as part of the War for Independence/Dutch Portuguese War seized northeastern Brazil ad held it for several decades. When the Portuguese finally ousted them, they brought sugar technology to the Caribbean. The climate was perfect. Small islands that had once been of only minor importance, suddenly became enormously valuable. The Europeans had, however, virtually exterminated the Native American populations (largely unintentionally through exposure to European diseases). The Spanish arrived first and decimated the Native American population on first Hispaniola and then Puerto Rico and Cuba. They thus began inporting captive Africans. But the numbers of Africans were limited because the Caribbean islands did not produce very valuable crops. Sugar changed this. Suddenly small islands which no one cared much about became some of the most valuable real estate in the world. Sugar is, however, a labour intensive crop and workers in large numbers were needed to work the new sugar plantations. The Portuguese who had focused on the coast of Africa at first dominated the slave trade. This changed as the Dutch, French, and English also began setting up West African African trading posts and entered the slave trade. They also began seizing the Spanish colonies (Jamaica and western Hispsniola--Haiti) as well as islands the Spanish had bypassed (such as Barbados, Dominica, Guadelupe, Martinique, St. Kitts, and others). ALL FOR SUGAR CANE
Christopher Como Human-Plant Relationships
Largest sugar cane exporters in world
Sugar songs on Spotify
Where do we in Britain get most of our sugar from now?
Ans: Sugar Beet in UK - who receive biggest EU subsidies.
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Next bit of plot Epic History. (30% of slaves bought to the New World were muslim - checking Raj..
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