Sunday, January 28, 2018
Week 3 & 4: Sweetness and Power
The following questions apply to the whole book (Sweetness and Power by Sydney Mintz): Describe how Mintz connects the rise of sugar consumption in England to the Triangle trade. How did it become possible for sugar to be such a cheap commodity that even the poor working classes could afford to consume it en masse? What role did the plantation economy play into this? Who were the different actors that made the plantation system lucrative for a particular group of people? Describe the economics of the plantation system. How did the plantation economy affect capitalist economy in British cities? What cultural shifts took place to transform sugar from a luxurious spice into a necessary dietary item? Why did the British working class people aspired to consume sugar? What were the cultural symbols attached to sugar?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The sugar plantations in the Caribbean are one of the main economies that Europe exploited from the New World. The introduction of 'Sweetness and Power' talks about how the plantations were worked by slaves brought from other countries around the world and some low paid labor workers. The New World allowed for the Triangle Trade to exist. It connected England sending out manufacturing goods, to African slave trade, and the New World receiving slaves and sending out new products. Throughout new expansions of any country through time into a new area they discover new products that are not produced at home that become automatically desirable. Sugar was one of those products that is native to Southeast Asia. Sugar was first brought to the Caribbean when Christopher Columbus arrived, and he discovered it grew extremely well. This opened the region for European settlers to come in and create plantations, using slave labor mainly from Africa, to produce the highly desired product. This was more helpful in the Triangle Trade because it gave merchants traveling to Europe sugar, or molasses, to take back and get manufactured goods to then take to Africa to trade for slaves, then back to the Caribbean with slaves for more sugar.
ReplyDeleteToday this sugar trade is still in existence today, though now there is not slave labor being used. Mintz describes his experiences living in the Caribbean about how the islands are still filled with fields of sugar cane that is being grown and processed everyday for the natives living.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSugar was not always the everyday commodity that we know it as today. It was once a luxury item for the wealthy of Europe, especially for those of high society England. For many years it was a symbol of status because it was an expensive spice and not many could afford the cost of importing it and consuming it. The wealthy loved to indulge in it. It is only natural that the people of the lower classes wanted to indulge just the same. If they were able to obtain such a commodity it would mean that you have had a taste of what it is like to be the fabulously wealthy, something that at the time was not easy to obtain because social mobility was nearly impossible for someone without a title or connection to someone who did have one. There was a shift in not only the economy but society, because within a couple hundred years, sugar had become a staple of every British person, not just the wealthy.
ReplyDeleteThe rise of the plantation economy in the West Indies is key to the creation of what we know as triangle trade. Northern European countries who were less concerned with resources like gold and silver, and more concerned with the production of marketable goods. These countries included England, which would go on to have a strong hold and dominate the trade with in the West Indies for centuries. The people of England, and the rest of Europe, wanted the goods that the Americas were producing, sugar being the most sought-after commodity. To match the growing demand, more and more plantations were built. England had vast control of the West Indies and soon enough all the sugar being consumed within Britain was coming from their own colonies. This meant that the English had complete control over the production, shipping, processing, and selling of sugar from the Americas. They once had to compensate for the cost of shipping and the cost of raw sugar by competing well in another area of their international trade and market, but by seizing control of every aspect of the sugar trade they were the ones to decide what happened within their economy.
The key part to having a profitable market for sugar and the number of plantations used to match the consumption rates would be cheap labor, or in this case free labor. Europeans looked to Africa for slave labor. The reality of this is that there would not have been any profit within the plantation economy without slave labor. Slave labor is what allowed the plantation owners to continue to make money even while maintaining large plantations.
The West Indies were not seen as an external source of wealth or commodities within the British economy. England would sell finished goods to Africa, from Africa slaves would be brought to the new world for labor, and commodities like sugar that were grown by the slaves on the plantations were then sold back to Britain where they would be made into finished products. These products would be sold throughout Britain and its empire and the cycle would continue. Soon enough though, the New England colonies started developing their own trading system and this would start the colonies on the path to revolution.
Because of triangle trade and Britain's control over trade goods from the West Indies, the price of sugar dropped dramatically and those of the lower economic classes could afford sugar, a commodity that they once never had access to. Once they did have access to it, they started incorporating it into their day to day diets and into the foods that they were eating. This signified a changing economic climate. With the rise of capitalism came the opportunity to economically advance in a world where there once was no such opportunity for those born into a lower class.
Mintz said that sugar shaped our world and our history. Sugar is what drove the colonization of the New World and it is what drove the rise and fall of empires and the beginnings of new nations. The sugar trade can be credited with forming our modern ideals and views on trade today, without it our world would not be what we know it as today, we would most likely not even recognize it.
In chapter 2 about production Mintz touches more on the importance of plantations in the production of sugar throughout history. Throughout the chapter it discusses in general how the production, and history of sugar planting expanded throughout the world. Mintz is continuing the process of giving a some what in depth history of not just the Caribbean where he studied. As discussed in class I think this is what makes the reading a little more interesting. He is able to rely such history on the sugar production from all around the world and still connect it. The sugar canes liquid substance is constantly referred to be like honey or a golden syrup. to as It talks as I mentioned in my previous post about how sugar is native to the Southern Asian islands and was expanded through the Middle East and Mediterranean by the Arabs. This was part of the history that I have not been familiar with. In general my knowledge of the sugar industry has had a bias look on just the Caribbean and its ties to England.
ReplyDeleteAround page 40 Mintz adds some excerpts from people in the colonial times describing the plantations in the New World. In more then one the speaker out right says how the production and money earned is not for the workers (slaves) but the English owners and distributors back in Europe. Also said was that the English were the ones consuming the sugar, as it was still at the point of being a luxury for the upper class. I think it is interesting to see that people were admitting that they knew the sugar production was not helpful to the main area where is was being grown.
These plantations as discussed in class and my last post were one of the three sides on the Triangle Trade. This side of the trade took sugar back to England for use and distribution. Mintz discusses how this essential of Caribbean plantations allowed for England to rely less on the sugar production of the Mediterranean. England having this new area where they could produce much more sugar than they needed, with essentially free labor with the use of slaves, brings in a large new source of profits to the English economy. Again all the profits were going to the plantation owners and the distributor back in England.
Sugar was first acknowledged in England in the 20th C. It was a rare and precious substance consumed by the privileged group. Grains were particularly a food for the poor people. The bubonic plague wiped out the population of England, thus affecting their production. Therefore, they had to export more than they imported, still many people were hungry. The laboring classes were therefore paid very little. With the import of sugar as a spice, more and more privileged families consumed it. The decline of sugar as a symbolic importance, led to the increase in its economic and dietary importance.Its potency as a symbol of power declined among the privileged, therefore it became available to the poor. Producing, shipping, refining and taxing sugar was a source of power for the privileged.
ReplyDeleteSugar started out as a privileged product consumed by only the wealthiest because of the price of sugar was so demanding. The Triangle Trade soon was created between England to trade with Africa and the New World which soon decreased the high demand for sugar. New products were being made along with the sugar industry, so the economy was becoming more interested in new products which would bring in new customers and consumers.
ReplyDeleteFrom the very beginning, sugar has always been a great privilege to consume. In the 1700s, sugar has been known for its spiritual connections to some cultures. Happiness and well-being has be incorporated with sugar as it has always been used for wealthier households. Sweetness grew meaning from the literal taste of sugar and soon people began connecting sweetness to personalities. These cultural symbols have been created centuries ago as the rise and fall of the sugar industry.
Sugar was first introduced into Europe around 1100 A.D and was known as a spice just like ginger, nutmeg and mace. It was rare and expensive and only few wealthy – royalty and very rich could afford it at that time. In the quest to make their diet digestible, varied and savory, spices were used in most dishes and sugar was in that category. During the 13th century sugar was sold in loaf and pound that only the wealthy could afford. the consumption was increasing in most royal households and quantities of it exported was gradually increasing as well. The uses of sugar expanded–decorative castle pieces displays used to impress guests and validate status in society. By the 16th century, sugar was used for medicinal purposes in Europe. However, in the 18th century, producing, shipping, refining and taxing sugar became proportionately more effective source of power for the powerful since large soms of money was involved. Inevitable sugar lost many of its special meaning since the poor could eat it. Also, making sugar available to the poor became profitable and patriotric. The price of sugar dropped to about 6d. pound with the inflow of other commodities such as tea, coffee been exported to Europe. There was also a mass production of fruits preseves conditioned by big drops in the price of sugar in the 19th century. The use of sugar as sweetner in beverages, baked sweet dishes in most pasteries stores became eventually the consumption pattern in millions of England working class . Hence, the standardation of such dishes across history.
ReplyDelete