During the Middle Ages, Venice was the chief sugar-distributing center in Europe. One of the earliest references to sugar in Great Britain is that concerning one hundred thousand pounds shipped to London in 1319 by Tomasso Loredano, a Venetian merchant. Wool, which at that time constituted the most important staple of English products, was exchanged for sugar. In the same year, an entry appears in the accounts of the Chamberlain of Scotland, showing a payment for sugar at the rate of one shilling and nine pence halfpenny per pound. It is said that at the end of the fifteenth century a citizen of Venice received a reward of 100,000 crowns ($111,940) for having invented the process of making loaf sugar. Vasco da Gama’s exploit in finding the way to Calicut by sea in 1498 deprived Venice of her position as a dominant commercial center; and new routes for the world’s trade were opened up. The discovery of America exercised a still greater influence upon the production and distribution of sugar.
Christopher Columbus’ first attempt to establish sugar growing in Santo Domingo in 1493[16] was not a success; but when negro slaves were brought to the West Indies by the Portuguese and the Spaniards, the industry took a new lease of life, and with slave labor, ideal climate and fertile soil, it increased abundantly. As illustrative of the extensive development in Santo Domingo, it is interesting to note that Charles V of Spain obtained from import taxes on Santo Domingan sugar the vast sums of money expended in the building of the royal palaces at Madrid and Toledo.[17]
Brazil was discovered by Pinzon in 1499[18] and sugar cane was taken there from Madeira. About thirty-three years later plantations had been laid out and the first sugar factory built. The year 1590 saw one hundred and two mills in operation in the provinces of Bahia and Pernambuco; and in 1600 the quantity of sugar exported from Brazil was 15,000 tons. At that time Brazil belonged to Spain, which had annexed Portugal and her colonies in 1580. It was conquered by the Dutch in 1629, and a great many sugar plantations and factories were destroyed; but these were subsequently restored by the new rulers. The Dutch, in turn, were expelled in 1655; and in 1661 Brazil was acknowledged to be a Portuguese possession. The sugar trade suffered, however, on account of the banishment of twenty thousand Dutch in 1655, and also through the discovery of gold in 1725, which drew the laborers from the sugar fields and mills; and the production fell off to a large extent.
Christopher Columbus
Fra Sebastiano Del Piombo
Copyright, 1906. Braun, Clément et Cie., Braun et Cie., Successeurs
The island of St. Christopher (now St. Kitts) was occupied in 1625 by both the English and the French. Ten years later the French took Guadeloupe and Martinique; Barbados became a British possession in 1627, and Jamaica was annexed in 1656. Sugar cane was planted in all these colonies, but through lack of knowledge and experience the product obtained was of indifferent quality. A decided improvement was brought about when the Dutch, who were expelled from Brazil, came to the islands in 1655.
Santo Domingo was taken over permanently by the French in 1697 after it had previously been occupied and abandoned by them. From this date the industry throve there and for upward of one hundred years Santo Domingo ranked among the foremost of the sugar-producing islands of the West Indies. Tyranny and cruel treatment caused the slaves to revolt in 1791; the whites who failed to escape were exterminated and the sugar plantations and mills were destroyed.
Santo Domingo has never recovered the prestige in the sugar world that she lost in this way. Her misfortune gave a great opportunity to Jamaica, whose production increased so rapidly that at the close of the eighteenth century she outstripped all the other West Indian islands. The falling off in Santo Domingo stimulated the industry in Cuba as well. As a dependency of Spain, Cuba was hampered by a number of restrictions; these were repealed in 1772, after which the sugar tonnage grew apace.