"Sugar, sugar" -- The Archies

So, with my recent articles on the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, I thought it would be a good idea to explore in detail the first major test case for the Act, that being the monopoly of the sugar industry and the U.S. vs. E. C. Knight Co. (1895).

But in looking through some of my usual sources, I realized you can't possibly discuss sugar monopolies without delving into the history of this sweet substance. And, in truth, without sugar there probably would not have been a slave trade in America.

About a thousand years ago an obscure German monk named Albert of Aachen wrote:

"In that place the people sucked little honeyed reeds, found in plenty throughout the plains, which they called 'zucra;' they enjoyed this reed's wholesome sap, and because of its sweetness once they had tasted it they could scarcely get enough of it. This kind of grass is cultivated every year by extremely hard work on the part of the farmers. Then at harvest time the natives crush the ripe crop in little mortars, putting the filtered sap into their utensils until it curdles and hardens with the appearance of snow or white salt. They shave pieces off and it seems to those who taste it sweeter and more wholesome even than a comb of honey. Some say that it is a sort of that honey which Jonathan, son of King Saul, found on the face of the earth and disobediently dared to taste. The people, who were troubled by a dreadful hunger, were greatly refreshed by these little honey-flavored reeds during the sieges of Albara, Ma'arra and Arga."

And so it came to pass that the Crusaders discovered the use of sugar in the Holy Land in the Middle Ages.

Albert of Aachen "saw in sugar the characteristics that made it a likely candidate for slave labor; 1) the difficulty of growing it and 2) the great demand it was likely to engender." [Africana] Sugar and slavery were to be inextricably linked for hundreds of years.

The uninhabited island of Madeira (off the coast of Morocco) was rediscovered (the ancients had known of it) by the Portuguese in 1418. Best estimates are that by 1452 the first sugar-mill, worked by slaves, was created here.

The climate and soil on Madeira were right for sugar cultivation and, with demand high, the Portuguese settlers grew cane, processed it, and then sold the product throughout Europe.

Sugar production was such a great cash-industry that the Portuguese began laying fields on all 4 island groups off the African coast; Canary, Azores, Cape Verde and Madeira. And some of these islands were to become major slave-depots.

In the late 15th century, the West Indies were discovered as well as Brazil. While there is some question as to the exact date, it is safe to say that between 1600-1640 large-scale sugar cane operations were underway. By the mid 1600s, a large colony of Puritans emigrated to the area where the first plantation-boom economy was established in English-speaking America. In the West Indies, by 1660 the sugar industry had surpassed tobacco in importance as an American export, accounting for nearly half of England's imports from the Americas (West Indies, Central and South America, primarily). And, due to the back-breaking work, the sugar business led to a huge demand for slaves.

For example, in Barbados in 1645, the white population was 30,000 with 5,700 slaves. Ten years later there were 23,000 whites but 20,000 slaves. On all of these islands the enslaved Indians had died off, only to be replaced by Africans, as it turned out some 11 to 12 million of them, including those in North America.

In 1650 the British mainland colonies in North America were 97 percent white and the British West Indies were 80 percent white. By 1750 the mainland was 80 percent white and the islands only 16 percent white.

The mercantilism that resulted from the sugar industry led to a "triangular trade," whereby slaves were transported to the Americas, particularly the West Indies, where they were exchanged for sugar, tobacco, and other agricultural products, which were then shipped to Europe to be sold across the continent.

"Europe realized great economic benefits by combining European investment, technology and organizational skills with labor stolen from Africa and land stolen from Amerindians." [Africana]

In 1720, England imported little more than half a million tons of sugar. By the end of the century, the figure was close to 2.5 million tons and, in the process, scores of millionaires were created. Historian Robert Sobel writes of the time, "The West Indies sugar planters were to the 1750s what the Arab petroleum tycoons would be two centuries later." "Rich as a Creole" was a commonplace way of indicating a person was wealthy.

Economist Adam Smith noted, "Our tobacco colonies send us home no such wealthy planters as we frequently see arrive from our sugar islands." When King George III spied an ornate coach on a London thoroughfare, he remarked, "Sugar. Sugar. Eh! All that sugar." [It is possible that The Archies ripped off King George. Just a thought.]

Robert Sobel gives the following example of the tremendous amount of wealth created by the sweet-tasting, soluble, crystalline monosaccharide.

In the 18th century there was a Bristol businessman who had entered the sugar trade.

"William Miles worked as an unskilled laborer and managed to put together 15 pounds. He then signed on as a carpenter for a voyage to Jamaica, where he used his savings to buy "a cask or two of sugar." He brought the sugar back to Bristol where it was sold for a large profit. With this money he procured a consignment of English manufactured goods, took it to Jamaica, sold it again for a much higher price, and then purchased more sugar. He repeated the operation and, on his death in 1848, left an estate of more than 500,000 pounds."

Next week, the role of sugar in America and the battle for independence.

Sources:
"The Pursuit of Wealth," Robert Sobel
"Africana," Appiah and Gates
"The Growth of the American Republic, Vol. 1," Morison, Commager, Leuchtenberg
"A History of the American People," Paul Johnson

Brian Trumbore