I love sugar, don’t you? Sugar is a magnificent invention. The first indication of sugar was recorded in England in 1317. England loved sugar so much that they wanted to make a lot of money off of it and keep it all for themselves. The quantity of sugar increased due to the high slavery population. The sugar trade was driven by consumer demand, slavery, and profits. These three concepts are very significant involving the sugar trade.
Consumer demand was high because people treasured sugar so much. They wanted more and more of it and couldn't get a sufficient amount. In document 3, the author illustrates how much people loved sugar by showing little kids licking the barrel in order to get every last bit of sugar they could. Because they loved it so much, they started putting sugar in everything. In document 4, the author says that sugar was used as a sweetener. For example, they put sugar in coffee and tea. Over the years, sugar became really popular. The population of Britain began to increase causing more sugar to be brought into the country. In document 5, the table says that as the population increases and sugar is imported, the more sugar is consumed by each person.
Savery is thought to have started because the consumer demand for sugar was so high and merchants needed additional people to help make it. The slaves were expensive to buy. In document 9, the author says that an adult male slave could be bought for 14 British pounds in 1748. Generally, the merchants were the only ones who could afford to spend that much money on a slave. In document 10, the table says that when there is an increase in the slave population there is an increase of sugar being made. Since slaves made the sugar, it only makes sense that this happened. For example, in Jamaica in 1703, the slave population was 45,000 and 4,782 tons of sugar produced. Then in 1730 there was an increase in the slave population and how much sugar was made. In document 11, the author lists certain things that English merchants traded for slaves. They would trade bullets, iron bars, copper boars, woolen goods for example in exchange for the slaves that they wanted. Slaves were in such a high demand, that merchants were trading everything that they had to get slaves. When they had the slaves they were more capable to produce sugar to make money.
Since everyone sought to make money off of sugar, profits are another thing that drove the sugar trade. If you wanted to make money then you had to foremost get the plantation in order and all set up. In order for you to do that, you have to have the money, so all of the plantation owners had a lot of money. In document 7, the author says that they inherited their money and were absentee owners. In document 8, the author illustrates how it would have looked like to make the sugar. You had to boil them and the workers weren't treated like humans. If they were treated fairly then they wouldn't have been able to make as much money off of the sugar, because they would have to pay the workers causing them to lose money.
As you can see there are three main points that drove the sugar trade. One of the points is consumer demand. There were numerous people who sought sugar, so sugar was in high demand. Slavery was the second point. If there were no slaves then there wouldn't have been as much sugar being made. The third, and final point, is profits. Everyone wanted to make money. Making and harvesting sugar was the perfect way to do that. So to answer the question of what drove the sugar trade, the answer is profits, consumer demand, and slavery. The
ecomony has to be balanced. If one economy is unbalanced than it throws everyone's economy off. The sugar trade helped with keeping everyone's economy balanced.
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