St. Eustatius and Curaçao belonging to the Dutch, and St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas to Denmark, also came in for their share of the benefit growing out of the impetus given to the sugar trade at this time. It must be borne in mind, however, that they were conveniently situated for sugar smuggling, of which there was not a little during the American Revolutionary war.
In the countries of South America, Brazil excepted, the sugar trade had become well established. French planters settled in Cayenne in 1634 and in Surinam six years later, but production was handicapped by the difficulty attendant upon securing labor, and this condition continued to exist even after the taking of Surinam, Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice by the Dutch. Finally the trouble was overcome by bringing in slaves, and with the end of the French war the sugar industry began to prosper, especially in Surinam. During subsequent hostilities these colonies were taken by France, afterwards by England, and later still they reverted to the Dutch. Today they are all British with the exception of Surinam and Cayenne.
Sugar cane was not known in Peru at the time of Pizarro’s first expedition to that country (1527), but it was brought there shortly afterward. In Chile and the Argentine its introduction was comparatively recent. The Jesuits took it from Santo Domingo to Louisiana in 1751, and in Mexico it dates back to the time of Cortés.
The rapidity of the increase in the production of the Americas threatened the plantations of Madeira, the Cape Verde islands and the Canaries with extinction and drove them from the world’s markets.
Sugar cane was planted by the French in the Ile de France (Mauritius) in 1747, and some years later in Bourbon (Réunion) and sugar made in these islands was sent to Europe about the end of the eighteenth century.
In Java sugar cane has been grown since a very remote period. It was probably brought there by Chinese traders and there is evidence that the Chinese introduced it in the Philippine islands, as the names of the implements and methods used there distinctly point to Chinese origin.
The cultivation of sugar cane in Australia was begun only fifty years ago; it was started in the Fiji islands in 1880, while Captain Cook found cane growing luxuriantly in the Hawaiian islands when he discovered them in 1778.
The wars between Great Britain and France during the latter part of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth had a very bad effect on the cane-sugar trade and its development. There was constant fighting in West Indian waters and many merchant vessels were taken as prizes; a disastrous state of affairs for planters and merchants alike. After the battle of Trafalgar had definitely established British supremacy on the seas, Napoleon put into effect his “Continental System,” which dealt a severe blow to cane sugar. This opens up a new and interesting chapter in the history of the industry.