Candy, as sugar in large crystals is called, is derived from the Arabic Kand or Kandat, a name of the same signification. An old Sanskrit name of Central Bengal is Gura, whence is derived the word Gula, meaning raw sugar, a term for sugar universally employed in the Malayan Archipelago, where on the other hand they have their own names for the sugar cane, although not for sugar. This fact again speaks in favour of Ritter’s opinion, that the preparation of sugar in a dry crystalline state is due to the inhabitants of Bengal. Sugar under the name of Shi-mi, i.e. Stone-honey, is frequently mentioned in the ancient Chinese annals among the productions of India and Persia; and it is recorded that the Emperor Tai-tsung, a.d. 627-650, sent an envoy to the kingdom of Magadha in India, the modern Bahar, to learn the method of manufacturing sugar.[2664] The Chinese, in fact, acknowledge that the Indians between a.d. 766 and 780 were their first teachers in the art of refining sugar, for which they had no particular ancient written character.
An Arabian writer, Abu Zayd al Hasan,[2665] informs us that about a.d. 850 the sugar cane was growing on the north-eastern shore of the Persian Gulf; and in the following century, the traveller Ali Istakhri[2666] found sugar abundantly produced in the Persian province of Kuzistan, the ancient Susiana. About the same time (a.d. 950), Moses of Chorene, an Armenian, also stated that the manufacture of sugar was flourishing near the celebrated school of medicine at Jondisabur in the same province, and remains of this industry in the shape of millstones, &c., still exist near Ahwas.
Persian physicians of the 10th and 11th centuries, as Rhazes, Haly Abbas, and Avicenna, introduced sugar into medicine. The Arabs cultivated the sugar cane in many of their Mediterranean settlements, as Cyprus, Sicily, Italy, Northern Africa, and Spain. The Calendar of Cordova[2667] shows that as early as a.d. 961 the cultivation was well understood in Spain, which is now the only country in Europe where sugar mills still exist.[2668]
William II., King of Sicily, presented in a.d. 1176 to the convent of Monreale mills for grinding cane, the culture of which still lingers at Avola near Syracuse, though only for the sake of making rum. In 1767, the sugar plantations and sugar houses at this spot were described by a traveller[2669] as “worth seeing.”
During the middle ages England, in common with the rest of Northern Europe, was supplied with sugar from the Mediterranean countries, especially Egypt and Cyprus. It was imported from Alexandria as early as the end of the 10th century by the Venetians, with whom it long remained an important article of trade. Thus we find[2670] that in a.d. 1319, a merchant in Venice, Tommaso Loredano, shipped to London 100,000 lb. of sugar, the proceeds of which were to be returned in wool, which at that period constituted the great wealth of England. Sugar was then very dear: thus from 1259 to 1350, the average price in England was about 1s. per lb., and from 1351 to 1400, 1s. 7d.[2671] In France during the same period it must have been largely obtainable, though doubtless expensive. King John II. ordered in 1353 that the apothecaries of Paris should not use honey in making those confections which ought to be prepared with the good white sugar called cafetin,[2672] a name alluding to the peculiar shape of the loaf which was not uncommon at that time.[2673]
The importance of the sugar manufacture in the East was witnessed in the latter half of the 13th century by Marco Polo;[2674] and in 1510 by Barbosa and other European travellers; and the trading nations of Europe rapidly spread the cultivation of the cane over all the countries, of which the climate was suitable. Thus its introduction into Madeira goes back as far as a.d. 1420; it reached St. Domingo in 1494,[2675] the Canary Islands in 1503, Brazil in the beginning of the 16th century, Mexico about 1520, Guiana about 1600, Guadaloupe in 1644, Martinique in 1650,[2676] Mauritius towards 1750, Natal[2677] and New South Wales, about 1852,[2678] while from a very early period the sugar cane had been propagated from the Indian Archipelago over all the islands of the Pacific Ocean.
The ancient cultivation in Egypt, probably never quite extinct, has been revived on an extensive scale by the Khedive Ismail Pasha. There were 13 sugar factories, making raw sugar, belonging to the Egyptian Government at work in 1872, and about 100,000 acres of land devoted to sugar cane. The export of sugar from Egypt in 1872 reached 2 millions of kantars, or about 89,200 tons.[2679]
The imperfection of organic chemistry previous to the middle of the 18th century, permitted no exact investigations into the chemical nature of sugar. Marggraf of Berlin[2680] proved in 1747 that sugar occurs in many vegetables, and succeeded in obtaining it in a pure crystallized state from the juice of beet root. The enormous practical importance of this discovery did not escape him, and he caused serious attempts to be made for rendering it available, which were so far successful that the first manufactory of beet-sugar was established in 1796 by Achard at Kunern in Silesia.
This new branch of industry[2681] was greatly promoted by the prohibitive measures, whereby Napoleon excluded colonial sugar from almost the whole Continent; and it is now carried forward on such a scale that 640,000 to 680,000 tons of beet root sugar are annually produced in Europe, the entire production of cane-sugar being estimated at 1,260,000 to 1,413,000 tons.[2682]
Among the British colonies, Mauritius,[2683] British Guiana,[2684] Trinidad,[2685] Barbados,[2686] and Jamaica,[2687] produce at present the largest quantity of sugar.