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[[File:Sokeritoppa.jpg|right|thumb| A [[sugarloaf]] was the traditional shape of sugar in the eighteenth century: a semi-hard sugar cone that required a sugar axe or hammer to break up and [[sugar nips]] to reduce to usable pieces]]
[[File:Sokeritoppa.jpg|right|thumb| A [[sugarloaf]] was the traditional shape of sugar in the eighteenth century: a semi-hard sugar cone that required a sugar axe or hammer to break up and [[sugar nips]] to reduce to usable pieces]]


Sugar was first produced from sugarcane plants in northern India sometime after the first century CE.<ref>*{{cite book|ref=harv | last1=Sato|first1=Tsugitaka|title=Sugar in the Social Life of Medieval Islam|date=2014|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9789004277526|page=01|url=http://www.brill.com/products/book/sugar-social-life-medieval-islam}}
Sugar was first produced from sugarcane plants in northern India sometime after the first century CE.<ref>*{{cite book|ref=harv | last1=Sato|first1=Tsugitaka|title=Sugar in the Social Life of Medieval Islam|date=2014|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9789004277526|page=01|url=http://www.brill.com/products/boo
</ref> The derivation of the word “sugar” is thought to be from Sanskrit, and Sanskrit literature from India, written between 1500 - 500 B.C. provides the first documentation of the cultivation of sugar cane and of the manufacture of sugar in the Bengal region of India. The Sanskrit name for a crudely made sugar substance was guda, meaning “to make into a ball or to conglomerate.”

The history of [[sugar]] has five main phases:

# The extraction of sugar cane juice from the [[sugarcane]] plant, and the subsequent domestication of the plant in tropical Southeast Asia sometime around 8,000 B.C.
# The invention of manufacture of cane sugar granules from sugarcane juice in India a little over two thousand years ago, followed by improvements in refining the crystal granules in India in the early centuries A.D.
# The spread of cultivation and manufacture of cane sugar to the medieval Islamic world together with some improvements of production methods.
# The spread of cultivation and manufacture of cane sugar to the West Indies and tropical parts of the Americas beginning in the 16th century, followed by more intensive improvements in production in the 17th through 19th centuries in that part of the world.
# The development of beet sugar, high fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Known worldwide by the end of the [[Middle Ages|medieval period]], sugar was very expensive<ref name=MedievalPriceOfSugar /> and was considered a "[[Spice trade|fine spice]]",{{sfn|Bernstein|2009|p=205}} but from about the year 1500, technological improvements and New World sources began turning it into a much cheaper bulk commodity.{{sfn|Bernstein|2009|p=207}}

==The spread of sugarcane cultivation==
[[File:Saccharum officinarum - Köhler–s Medizinal-Pflanzen-125.jpg|thumbnail|''[[Saccharum officinarum]]'' - sugar cane]]
There are two centers of domestication for sugarcane: one for ''[[Saccharum officinarum]]'' by [[Papuan people|Papuans]] in [[New Guinea]] and another for ''[[Saccharum sinense]]'' by [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesians]] in [[Taiwan]] and southern [[China]]. Papuans and Austronesians originally primarily used sugarcane as food for domesticated pigs. The spread of both ''S. officinarum'' and ''S. sinense'' is closely linked to the migrations of the [[Austronesian peoples]]. ''[[Saccharum barberi]]'' was only cultivated in [[India]] after the introduction of ''S. officinarum''.<ref name="Daniels1993">{{cite journal |last1=Daniels |first1=John |last2=Daniels |first2=Christian |title=Sugarcane in Prehistory |journal=Archaeology in Oceania |date=April 1993 |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=1–7 |doi=10.1002/j.1834-4453.1993.tb00309.x |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/j.1834-4453.1993.tb00309.x}}</ref><ref name="Paterson2012">{{cite book|first1=Andrew H. |last1=Paterson|first2=Paul H.|last2=Moore|first3=Tew|last3=Tom L.|editor1-first=Andrew H. |editor1-last=Paterson|title =Genomics of the Saccharinae|chapter =The Gene Pool of ''Saccharum'' Species and Their Improvement|publisher =Springer Science & Business Media|series =|year =2012|pages=43-72|isbn = 9781441959478|url =https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=F282fp_IMI8C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA54#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref>
[[File:Map showing centers of origin of Saccharum officinarum in New Guinea, S. sinensis in China, and S. barberi in India.png|left|400px|thumb|Map showing centers of origin of ''[[Saccharum officinarum]]'' in [[New Guinea]], ''[[Saccharum sinense|S. sinensis]]'' in southern [[China]] and [[Taiwan]], and ''[[Saccharum barberi|S. barberi]]'' in [[India]]; dotted arrows represent [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian]] introductions<ref name="danielsmenzies1996"/>]]
''Saccharum officinarum'' was first domesticated in [[New Guinea]] and the islands east of the [[Wallace Line]] by [[Papuan people|Papuans]], where it is the modern center of diversity. Beginning at around 6,000 [[Before Present|BP]] they were [[selectively bred]] from the native ''[[Saccharum robustum]]''. From New Guinea it spread westwards to [[Island Southeast Asia]] after contact with Austronesians, where it hybridized with ''[[Saccharum spontaneum]]''.<ref name="Paterson2012"/>

The second domestication center is mainland southern China and Taiwan where ''S. sinense'' was a primary [[cultigen]] of the [[Austronesian peoples]]. Words for sugarcane exist in the [[Proto-Austronesian]] languages in [[Taiwan]], reconstructed as ''*təbuS'' or ''**CebuS'', which became ''*tebuh'' in [[Proto-Malayo-Polynesian]]. It was one of the [[Domesticated plants and animals of Austronesia|original major crops]] of the [[Austronesian peoples]] from at least 5,500 [[Before Present|BP]]. Introduction of the sweeter ''S. officinarum'' may have gradually replaced it throughout its cultivated range in Island Southeast Asia.<ref name="Blust1984">{{cite journal |last1=Blust |first1=Robert |title=The Austronesian Homeland: A Linguistic Perspective |journal=Asian Perspectives |date=1984-1985 |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=44-67 |url=https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/16918}}</ref><ref name="Spriggs2011">{{cite journal |last1=Spriggs |first1=Matthew |title=Archaeology and the Austronesian expansion: where are we now? |journal=Antiquity |date=2 January 2015 |volume=85 |issue=328 |pages=510–528 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00067910 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/archaeology-and-the-austronesian-expansion-where-are-we-now/952E579C735CF92A49B70FF4D0388338}}</ref><ref name="danielsmenzies1996">{{cite book|editor1-first=Joseph |editor1-last=Needham|first1= Christian|last1= Daniels|first2=Nicholas K. |last2=Menzies|title =Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 6, Biology and Biological Technology, Part 3, Agro-Industries and Forestry|chapter =|publisher =Cambridge University Press|series =|year =1996|pages=177-185|isbn =9780521419994|url =https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=DzqPvHlFkV4C&lpg=PP1&pg=PR8#v=onepage&q&f=fals}}</ref><ref name="Aljanabi">{{cite book|first1=Salah M.|last1=Aljanabi|editor1-first=M. Raafat|editor1-last=El-Gewely|title =Biotechnology Annual Review|volume=4|chapter =Genetics, phylogenetics, and comparative genetics of ''Saccharum'' L., a polysomic polyploid Poales: Andropogoneae|publisher =Elsevier Science B.V.|series =|year =1998|pages=285-320|isbn =9780444829719|url =https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=sXuUuIp18n0C&lpg=PP1&pg=PA285#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref><ref name="Baldick2013">{{cite book|first1=Julian|last1=Baldick|editor1-first=|editor1-last=|title =Ancient Religions of the Austronesian World: From Australasia to Taiwan|chapter =|publisher =I.B.Tauris|series =|year =2013|page=2|isbn =9780857733573|url =https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=7U6oBAAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PP6#v=onepage&q&f=false}}</ref>

From Island Southeast Asia, ''S. officinarum'' was spread eastward into [[Polynesia]] and [[Micronesia]] by Austronesian voyagers as a [[canoe plant]] by around 3,500 [[Before Present|BP]]. It was also spread westward and northward by around 3,000 [[Before Present|BP]] to China and India by Austronesian traders, where it further hybridized with ''[[Saccharum sinense]]'' and ''[[Saccharum barberi]]''. From there it spread further into western [[Eurasia]] and the [[Mediterranean]].<ref name="Paterson2012"/><ref name="danielsmenzies1996"/>

[[India]], where the process of refining cane juice into granulated crystals was developed, was often visited by imperial convoys (such as those from China) to learn about cultivation and sugar refining.{{sfn|SKIL|2014|p=[http://www.sucrose.com/lhist.html]}} By the sixth century AD, sugar cultivation and processing had reached Persia, and from there that knowledge was brought into the Mediterranean by the Arab expansion.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=EXzgcB-pb2YC&pg=PA10 10]}} "Wherever they went, the [medieval] Arabs brought with them sugar, the product and the technology of its production."{{sfn|Mintz|1986|p=25}}

Spanish and Portuguese exploration and conquest in the fifteenth century carried sugar south-west of [[Iberia]]. [[Henry the Navigator]] introduced cane to [[Madeira]] in 1425, while the Spanish, having eventually subdued the [[Canary Islands]], introduced sugar cane to them.{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=EXzgcB-pb2YC&pg=PA10 10]}} In 1493, on his second voyage, [[Christopher Columbus]] carried sugarcane seedlings to the [[New World]], in particular [[Hispaniola]].{{sfn|Parker|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=EXzgcB-pb2YC&pg=PA10 10]}}

==Early use of sugarcane in India==
Sugarcane originated in tropical [[South Asia]] and [[Southeast Asia]].{{sfn|Sharpe|1998}} Different species likely originated in different locations with ''S. barberi'' originating in [[India]] and ''S. edule'' and ''S. officinarum'' coming from [[New Guinea]].{{sfn|Sharpe|1998}}

Originally, people chewed sugarcane raw to extract its sweetness. [[India]]ns discovered how to crystallize sugar during the [[Gupta dynasty]], around 350 AD.{{sfn|Adas|2001|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qcSsoJ0IXawC&pg=PA311 2341]}}

There are lot of mentions in Tamil [[Sangam literature|sangam literatures]] like [[Purananuru]], [[Ainkurunuru]], [[Perumpāṇāṟṟuppaṭai|Perumpaanaatruppadai]], [[Pattinappaalai|Paṭṭiṉappālai]] and [[Akanaṉūṟu|Akananuru]] about cultivation of sugarcane, sugarcane juice extraction using machines, and sugar extraction in the Tamil regions of South India. It is mentioned in Purananuru (392): here, the sugar cane is brought to Tamil land from an unknown place during the [[Sangam period]]. In Purananuru and Ainkurunuru, sugarcane juice extraction with use of huge machineries was compared with the sound made by elephants and the smoke produced during the process of making of sugar spread over a heap of unwinnowed paddy was like clouds over mountains.

Indian sailors, consumers of clarified butter and sugar, carried sugar by various [[trade routes]].{{sfn|Adas|2001|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=qcSsoJ0IXawC&pg=PA311 311]}} Travelling Buddhist monks brought sugar crystallization methods to China.{{sfn|Kieschnick|2003}} During the reign of [[Harsha]] (r. 606&ndash;647) in [[North India]], Indian envoys in [[Tang Dynasty|Tang China]] taught sugarcane cultivation methods after [[Emperor Taizong of Tang]] (r. 626&ndash;649) made his interest in sugar known, and China soon established its first sugarcane cultivation in the seventh century.{{sfn|Sen|2003|pp=38–40}} Chinese documents confirm at least two missions to India, initiated in 647 AD, for obtaining technology for sugar-refining.{{sfn|Kieschnick|2003|p=258}} In South Asia, the [[Middle East]] and [[China]], sugar became a staple of cooking and [[dessert]]s.

Early refining methods involved grinding or pounding the cane in order to extract the juice, and then boiling down the juice or drying it in the sun to yield sugary solids that looked like [[gravel]]. The Sanskrit word for "sugar" (''sharkara'') also means "gravel" or "sand".<ref>"sugar, n." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, June 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/193624. Accessed 25 July 2018.</ref> Similarly, the [[Chinese language|Chinese]] use the term "gravel sugar" ([[Traditional Chinese]]: 砂糖) for what the West knows as "table sugar".

In the year 1792, sugar rose by degrees to an enormous price in Great Britain. The [[East India Company]] was then called upon to lend their assistance to help in the lowering of the price of sugar. On 15 March 1792, his Majesty's Ministers to the British Parliament, presented a report related to the production of refined sugar in British India. Lieutenant J. Paterson, of the Bengal establishment, reported that refined sugar could be produced in India<ref>[http://www.bihargatha.in/early-agriculture-based-enterprenureships/sugar-concerns bihargatha.in]</ref> with many superior advantages, and a lot more cheaply than in the West Indies.

==Cane sugar in the medieval era in the Muslim World and Europe==
[[File:Spread sugarcane.JPG|thumb|upright=1.6|The westward diffusion of sugarcane in pre-Islamic times (shown in red), in the medieval [[Muslim world]] (green), and in the 15th century by the Portuguese on the Madeira archipelago, and by the Spanish on the Canary Islands archipelago (islands west of Africa, circled by violet lines)<ref>Watson, Andrew. ''Agricultural innovation in the early Islamic world. [[Cambridge University Press]]. p. 26–7.</ref>|alt=Map showing sugar cane India as the first sugar cane country, followed by small areas in Africa, and then smaller areas on Atlantic Islands west of Africa]]

There are records of knowledge of sugar among the ancient Greeks and Romans, but only as an imported medicine, and not as a food. For example, the Greek physician [[Dioscorides]] in the 1st century (AD) wrote: "There is a kind of coalesced honey called ''sakcharon'' [i.e. sugar] found in reeds in India and [[Arabia Felix|Eudaimon Arabia]] [i.e. Yemen<ref>There is no evidence from Yemen itself that sugarcane was cultivated in Yemen before the start of the Islamic era. There is plentiful evidence that Yemen imported goods from India in the pre-Islamic era (see e.g. ''[[Periplus of the Erythrean Sea]]''). Hence historians today tend to believe that when Dioscorides was writing in the 1st century AD, Yemen imported sugar from India; and, that it did not produce it locally, and that the sugar that Dioscorides obtained in Greece was an import from Yemen but ultimately became an import from India. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Y96agmiQP7gC&lpg=PA24&pg=PA24#v=onepage The Sugar Cane Industry: An Historical Geography from its Origins to 1914], by J.H. Galloway, year 1989, page 24.</ref>] similar in consistency to salt and brittle enough to be broken between the teeth like salt. It is good dissolved in water for the intestines and stomach, and [can be] taken as a drink to help [relieve] a painful bladder and kidneys."<ref>Quoted from Book Two of Dioscorides' ''Materia Medica''. The book is downloadable from links at the Wikipedia [[Dioscorides]] page.</ref> [[Pliny the Elder]], a 1st-century (AD) Roman, also described sugar as medicinal: "Sugar is made in Arabia as well, but Indian sugar is better. It is a kind of honey found in cane, white as gum, and it crunches between the teeth. It comes in lumps the size of a hazelnut. Sugar is used only for medical purposes."<ref name=faas>[{{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=YXGlAr17oekC }} Patrick Faas (2003). ''Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p.&nbsp;149.]</ref>

During the medieval era, Arab entrepreneurs adopted sugar production techniques from India and expanded the industry. Medieval Arabs in some cases set up large [[Sugar plantations in the Caribbean|plantation]]s equipped with on-site [[Sugar refinery|sugar mills or refineries]]. The cane sugar plant, which is native to a tropical climate, requires both a lot of water and a lot of heat to thrive. The cultivation of the plant spread throughout the medieval Arab world using artificial irrigation. Sugar cane was first grown extensively in medieval Southern Europe during the period of [[Emirate of Sicily|Arab rule in Sicily]] beginning around the 9th century.{{sfn|Sato|2014|p=30}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art143.htm|title=Sugar Cane in Sicily&nbsp;— Best of Sicily Magazine|website=www.bestofsicily.com|accessdate=26 January 2018}}</ref> In addition to Sicily, [[Al-Andalus]] (in what is currently southern Spain) was an important center of sugar production, beginning by the tenth century.<ref>''Salobreña: Rutas y senderos / Countryside Paths and Walks'', ed. by Juan Manuel Pérez, trans. by Deborah Green (Salobreña: Ayuntamiento de Salobreña, 2009), {{ISBN|8487811132}}, pp. 9-10.</ref><ref>Carmen Trillo San José and Gari Amtmann, '[http://revistaselectronicas.ujaen.es/index.php/ATM/article/download/1685/1463 Un castillo junto al río Laroles: ¿Šant Afliy?]', ''AyTM'', 8 (2001), 305-23 (p. 309).</ref>

From the Arab world, sugar was exported throughout Europe. The volume of imports increased in the later medieval centuries as indicated by the increasing references to [[sugar consumption]] in late medieval Western writings. But cane sugar remained an expensive import. Its price per pound in 14th and 15th century England was about equally as high as imported spices from tropical Asia such as mace (nutmeg), ginger, cloves, and pepper, which had to be transported across the Indian Ocean in that era.<ref name="MedievalPriceOfSugar">One source for the price of cane sugar in late medieval England is the annual account books of a large abbey at Durham, which recorded the purchases of many different goods for use in the abbey, including sugar and various spices, giving the quantity bought and the price paid, with records existing for many years in the 14th and 15th centuries. Selections from these account books are online in two volumes at Archive.org: [https://archive.org/search.php?query=title%3A%28Account%20Rolls%20of%20the%20Abbey%20of%20Durham%20%29%20AND%20creator%3A%28surtees%29 ''Extracts from the Account Rolls of the Abbey of Durham'']. In the Durham Abbey account books the word for sugar is spelled Zuker (year 1299), succre (1309), sucore (1311), Zucar (1316), suker (1323), Zuccoris (1326), Succoris (1329), sugre (1363), suggir (1440).</ref>

[[Clive Ponting|Ponting]] traces the spread of the cultivation of sugarcane from its introduction into [[Mesopotamia]], then the [[Levant]] and the islands of the eastern Mediterranean, especially [[Cyprus]], by the 10th century.{{sfn|Ponting|2000|p=353}} He also notes that it spread along the coast of East Africa to reach [[Zanzibar]].{{sfn|Ponting|2000|p=353}}

[[Crusades|Crusaders]] brought sugar home with them to Europe after their campaigns in the [[Holy Land]], where they encountered caravans carrying "sweet salt". Early in the 12th century, Venice acquired some villages near [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] and set up estates to produce sugar for export to Europe, where it supplemented honey as the only other available sweetener.{{sfn|Ponting|2000|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wOenYGilfd8C&pg=PA481 481]}}
Crusade chronicler [[William of Tyre]], writing in the late 12th century, described sugar as "a most precious product, very necessary for the use and health of mankind".<ref>{{cite book |last1= Barber|first1=Malcolm|edition=2nd |title=The two cities: medieval Europe, 1050–1320 |year= 2004|publisher= Routledge|isbn= 978-0-415-17415-2|page=14 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7Kkm7cgT_xkC&pg=PA14}}</ref> The first record of sugar in English is in the late 13th century.<ref>[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mec/med-idx?type=id&id=MED43692&egs=all&egdisplay=compact UMich ''Middle English Dictionary''].</ref>

Ponting recounts the reliance on slavery of the early European sugar entrepreneurs:

<blockquote>
The crucial problem with sugar production was that it was highly labour-intensive in both growing and processing. Because of the huge weight and bulk of the raw cane it was very costly to transport, especially by land, and therefore each estate had to have its own factory. There the cane had to be crushed to extract the juices, which were boiled to concentrate them, in a series of backbreaking and intensive operations lasting many hours. However, once it had been processed and concentrated, the sugar had a very high value for its bulk and could be traded over long distances by ship at a considerable profit. The [European sugar] industry only began on a major scale after the loss of the Levant to a resurgent Islam and the shift of production to Cyprus under a mixture of Crusader aristocrats and Venetian merchants. The local population on Cyprus spent most of their time growing their own food and few would work on the sugar estates. The owners therefore brought in slaves from the Black Sea area (and a few from Africa) to do most of the work. The level of demand and production was low and therefore so was the trade in slaves — no more than about a thousand people a year. It was not much larger when sugar production began in Sicily.

In the Atlantic ocean [the [[Canary Islands|Canaries]], [[Madeira]], and the [[Cape Verde Islands]]], once the initial exploitation of the timber and raw materials was over, it rapidly became clear that sugar production would be the most profitable way of getting money from the new territories. The problem was the heavy labour involved because the Europeans refused to work except as supervisors. The solution was to bring in slaves from Africa. The crucial developments in this trade began in the 1440's...{{sfn|Ponting|2000|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wOenYGilfd8C&pg=PA481 481]}}
</blockquote>

During the 1390s, a better press was developed, which doubled the amount of juice that was obtained from the sugarcane and helped to cause the economic expansion of sugar plantations to [[Andalusia]] and to the [[Algarve]]. It started in [[Madeira]] in 1455, using advisers from Sicily and (largely) Genoese capital for the mills. The accessibility of Madeira attracted Genoese and Flemish traders keen to bypass Venetian monopolies. "By 1480 Antwerp had some seventy ships engaged in the Madeira sugar trade, with the refining and distribution concentrated in Antwerp. The 1480's saw sugar production extended to the Canary Islands. By the 1490's Madeira had overtaken Cyprus as a producer of sugar."{{sfn|Ponting|2000|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wOenYGilfd8C&pg=PA482 482]}}
African slaves also worked in the sugar plantations of the Kingdom of Castile around Valencia.{{sfn|Ponting|2000|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wOenYGilfd8C&pg=PA482 482]}}

In the 16th century Rabbi [[Yosef Karo]], the author of the [[Shulchan Aruch]], the code of Jewish law, mentions the use of sugar mixed with the juice of lemons and water by Jews in Cairo, Egypt to make [[lemonade]] on [[Shabbat|Sabbath]]. (Orech Chayim, Hilchot Shabbat)

==Sugar cultivation in the New World==
[[File:Triangular trade.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The Triangular trade - slaves were imported into the Caribbean Islands to plant and harvest [[sugar cane]].]]
{{See also|Slavery in the British and French Caribbean}}
<!--The Spanish sugar industry flourished for less than a century. Spanish failure left the way open for the Portuguese, particularly after the latter took possession of Brazil in 1500, and thus dominated global sugar [[Production (economics)|production]]. By the end of the sixteenth century, Brazil was producing the highest income of any [[colony]] in the world. Initially, the Portuguese used indigenous labour, switching to African slaves as the former either died or fled.

The Dutch founded the [[Dutch East India Company|VOC]] in 1621 to gain a position in New World sugar production in Brazil, and eventually their sugar income rose above the income that the Portuguese were getting from their sugar production facilities in Brazil. From 1636, the Netherlands received the largest income from sugar production in Brazil. Problems in Brazil in the 1640s led to further Dutch expansion, this time into the Caribbean.

Unlike cotton and tobacco, sugar is complicated and time-consuming to grow and process. More so than tobacco, and even more so than cotton, sugar demanded far more labour, capital and expertise for successful cultivation and processing.

During the 1630s, the price of sugar stayed low due to the vast amounts being produced in Brazil by the Dutch. A fall in yields and political disturbance in Brazil saw a sudden rise in its value, setting the stage for the triumph of sugar on the world stage. The domestic distractions of the English Civil War led to effective Dutch control of English settlements such as Barbados.

-->The Portuguese took sugar to [[History of Brazil|Brazil]]. By 1540, there were 800 [[cane sugar mill]]s in [[Santa Catarina (island)|Santa Catarina]] Island and there were another 2,000 on the north coast of Brazil, [[Demarara]], and [[Surinam]]. The first sugar harvest happened in [[Hispaniola]] in 1501; and many sugar mills had been constructed in [[Cuba]] and [[Jamaica]] by the 1520s.{{sfn|Benitez-Rojo|1996|p=93}}

The approximately 3,000 small sugar mills that were built before 1550 in the New World created an unprecedented demand for [[cast iron]] [[gear]]s, levers, axles and other implements. Specialist trades in mold-making and iron casting developed in Europe due to the expansion of sugar production. Sugar mill construction sparked development of the technological skills needed for a nascent [[industrial revolution]] in the early 17th century.{{sfn|Benitez-Rojo|1996|p=93}}

After 1625, the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] carried sugarcane from South America to the Caribbean islands, where it was grown from [[Barbados]] to the [[Virgin Islands]].

Contemporaries often compared the worth of sugar with valuable commodities including [[musk]], [[pearl]]s, and [[spice]]s. Sugar prices declined slowly as its production became multi-sourced, especially through British colonial policy. Formerly an indulgence of only the rich, the consumption of sugar also became increasingly common among the poor as well. Sugar [[Production (economics)|production]] increased in mainland North American colonies, in [[Cuba]], and in [[Brazil]]. The labour force at first included European [[indentured servant]]s and local [[Native American (Americas)|Native American]] slaves. However, European diseases such as [[smallpox]] and African ones such as [[malaria]] and [[yellow fever]] soon reduced the numbers of local [[Native American (Americas)|Native American]]s.{{sfn|Benitez-Rojo|1996|p=93}} Europeans were also very susceptible to malaria and yellow fever, and the supply of indentured servants was limited. African [[Slavery|slaves]] became the dominant source of plantation workers because they were more resistant to [[malaria]] and [[yellow fever]], and because the [[Atlantic slave trade|supply of slaves]] was abundant on the African coast.{{sfn|Watts|2001}}{{sfn|Wood|1996|p=89}}

During the 18th century, sugar became enormously popular. Britain, for example, consumed five times as much sugar in 1770 as in 1710.{{sfn|Ponting|2000|p=510}}
By 1750 sugar surpassed grain as "the most valuable commodity in European trade&nbsp;— it made up a fifth of all European imports and in the last decades of the century four-fifths of the sugar came from the British and French colonies in the West Indies."{{sfn|Ponting|2000|p=510}}
The sugar market went through a series of [[economic boom|boom]]s. The heightened demand and production of sugar came about to a large extent due to a great change in the eating habits of many Europeans. For example, they began consuming [[jam]]s, [[candy]], tea, coffee, cocoa, processed foods, and other sweet victuals in much greater amount. Reacting to this increasing craze, the islands took advantage of the situation and set about producing still more sugar. In fact, they produced up to ninety percent of the sugar that the western Europeans consumed. Some islands proved more successful than others when it came to producing the product. In Barbados and the British [[Leeward Islands]] sugar provided 93% and 97% respectively of exports.

Planters later began developing ways to boost production even more. For example, they began using more farming methods when growing their crops. They also developed more advanced mills and began using better types of sugarcane. In the eighteenth century "the French colonies were the most successful, especially Saint-Domingue, where better irrigation, water-power and machinery, together with concentration on newer types of sugar, increased profits."{{sfn|Ponting|2000|p=510}}
Despite these and other improvements, the price of sugar reached soaring heights, especially during events such as the revolt against the Dutch<ref>On the Caribbean island of Curaçao, there were slave rebellions in 1716, 1750, 1774, and 1795, the latter led by the slave [[Tula (Curaçao)|Tula]].</ref> and the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. Sugar remained in high demand, and the islands' planters knew exactly how to take advantage of the situation.
[[File:Tropenmuseum Royal Tropical Institute Objectnumber 3581-33h Ingekleurde litho voorstellende de oo.jpg|thumb|A 19th-century lithograph by Theodore Bray showing a sugarcane plantation. On right is "white officer", the European overseer. Slave workers toil during the harvest. To the left is a flat-bottomed vessel for cane transportation.]]
As Europeans established sugar plantations on the larger Caribbean islands, prices fell, especially in [[United Kingdom|Britain]]. By the 18th century all levels of society had become common consumers of the former luxury product. At first most sugar in Britain went into tea, but later [[candy|confectionery]] and [[chocolate]]s became extremely popular. Many Britons (especially children) also ate jams.{{sfn|Wilson|2011}} Suppliers commonly sold sugar in the form of a [[sugarloaf]] and consumers required [[sugar nips]], a pliers-like tool, to break off pieces.

Sugarcane quickly exhausts the [[soil]] in which it grows, and planters pressed larger islands with fresher soil into production in the nineteenth century as demand for sugar in Europe continued to increase: "average consumption in Britain rose from four pounds per head in 1700 to eighteen pounds in 1800, thirty-six pounds by 1850 and over one hundred pounds by the twentieth century."{{sfn|Ponting|2000|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wOenYGilfd8C&pg=PA698 698]}}
In the 19th century Cuba rose to become the richest land in the Caribbean (with sugar as its dominant crop) because it formed the only major island [[landmass]] free of mountainous terrain. Instead, nearly three-quarters of its land formed a rolling plain — ideal for planting crops. Cuba also prospered above other islands because Cubans used better methods when harvesting the sugar crops: they adopted modern milling methods such as [[watermill]]s, enclosed furnaces, [[steam engine]]s, and vacuum pans. All these technologies increased productivity. Cuba also retained slavery longer than the most of the rest of the Caribbean islands.{{sfn|Ponting|2000|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wOenYGilfd8C&pg=PA698 698–9]}}

After the [[Haitian Revolution]] established the independent state of [[Haiti]], sugar production in that country declined and [[History of Cuba|Cuba]] replaced Saint-Domingue as the world's largest producer.
[[File:Hacienda La Fortuna Francisco Oller 1885 Brooklyn Museum.jpg|left|thumb|''Hacienda La Fortuna.'' A sugar mill complex in Puerto Rico, painted by [[Francisco Oller]] in 1885. [[Brooklyn Museum]]]]
Long established in [[Brazil]], sugar production spread to other parts of [[South America]], as well as to newer European colonies in [[Africa]] and in the Pacific, where it became especially important in [[Fiji]]. [[Mauritius]], [[Colony of Natal|Natal]] and [[Queensland]] in Australia started growing sugar. The older and newer sugar production areas now tended to use indentured labour rather than slaves, with workers "shipped across the world ... [and] ... held in conditions of near slavery for up to ten years... In the second half of the nineteenth century over 450,000 indentured labourers went from India to the British West Indies, others went to Natal, Mauritius and Fiji (where they became a majority of the population). In Queensland workers from the Pacific islands were moved in. On [[Hawaii]], they came from [[China]] and [[Japan]]. The Dutch transferred large numbers of people from [[Java]] to [[Surinam]]."{{sfn|Ponting|2000|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wOenYGilfd8C&pg=PA739 739]}}
It is said that the sugar plantations would not have thrived without the aid of the African slaves. In [[Colombia]], the planting of sugar started very early on, and entrepreneurs imported many African slaves to cultivate the fields. The industrialization of the Colombian industry started in 1901 with the establishment of [[Manuelita]], the first steam-powered sugar mill in South America, by [[Latvian Jews|Latvian Jewish]] immigrant [[James Martin Eder]].

== The rise of beet sugar ==
[[File:Šurany cukrovar1.jpg|thumb|[[Sugar refinery]] in [[Šurany]] (Slovakia) founded in 1854 (a picture is from 1900).]]
:''More information in the History section at [[Sugar beet]]''

In 1747 the German chemist [[Andreas Sigismund Marggraf|Andreas Marggraf]] identified sucrose in [[Sugar beet|beet root]].<ref>Marggraf (1747) [https://books.google.com/books?id=lJQDAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA79#v=onepage&q&f=false "Experiences chimiques faites dans le dessein de tirer un veritable sucre de diverses plantes, qui croissent dans nos contrées"] [Chemical experiments made with the intention of extracting real sugar from diverse plants that grow in our lands], ''Histoire de l'académie royale des sciences et belles-lettres de Berlin'', pages 79-90.</ref> This discovery remained a mere curiosity for some time, but eventually Marggraf's student [[Franz Carl Achard|Franz Achard]] built a sugar beet processing factory at [[Cunern]] in [[Silesia]] (in present-day [[Konary, Wołów County|Konary]] in Poland), under the patronage of King [[Frederick William III of Prussia]] (reigned 1797–1840). While never profitable, this plant operated from 1801 until it suffered destruction during the [[Napoleonic War]]s (ca. 1802–1815).

[[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]], cut off from Caribbean imports by a British [[blockade]], and at any rate not wanting to fund British merchants, banned imports of sugar in 1813. A beet sugar industry emerged, especially after [[Jean-Baptiste Quéruel]] industrialized the operation of [[Benjamin Delessert]].

In the developed countries, the sugar industry relies on machinery with a low requirement for manpower. A large beet refinery producing around 1,500 tonnes of sugar a day needs a permanent workforce of about 150 for 24-hour production.

Sugar beets provide approximately 30% of world sugar production.

== Mechanization ==

Beginning in the late 18th century, the production of sugar became increasingly mechanized. The [[steam engine]] first powered a sugar mill in [[Jamaica]] in 1768, and soon after, steam replaced direct firing as the source of process heat.

In 1813 the [[Great Britain|British]] chemist [[Edward Charles Howard]] invented a method of refining sugar that involved boiling the cane juice not in an open kettle, but in a closed vessel heated by steam and held under partial vacuum. At reduced pressure, water boils at a lower temperature, and this development both saved fuel and reduced the amount of sugar lost through [[caramelization]]. Further gains in fuel-efficiency came from the [[multiple-effect evaporator]], designed by the [[United States]] engineer [[Norbert Rillieux]] (perhaps as early as the 1820s, although the first working model dates from 1845). This system consisted of a series of vacuum pans, each held at a lower pressure than the previous one. The vapors from each pan served to heat the next, with minimal heat wasted. Modern industries use multiple-effect evaporators for evaporating water.

The process of separating sugar from [[molasses]] also received mechanical attention: David Weston first applied the [[centrifuge]] to this task in [[Hawaii]] in 1852.

==Other sweeteners==

{{See also|Sugar substitute}}
[[File:SweetnLowSweetener.JPG|thumb|Cyclamate-based sugar substitute sold in Canada.]]
In the United States and Japan, [[high-fructose corn syrup]] has replaced sugar in some uses, particularly in soft drinks and processed foods.

The process by which high-fructose corn syrup is produced was first developed by Richard O. Marshall and Earl R. Kooi in 1957.{{sfn|Marshall|Kooi|1957}} The industrial production process was refined by Dr. Y. Takasaki at Agency of Industrial Science and Technology of Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan in 1965–1970. High-fructose corn syrup was rapidly introduced to many processed foods and [[soft drink]]s in the United States from around 1975 to 1985.

A system of sugar tariffs and sugar quotas imposed in 1977 in the United States significantly increased the cost of imported sugar and U.S. producers sought cheaper sources. High-fructose corn syrup, derived from corn, is more economical because the domestic U.S. price of sugar is twice the global price<ref name="Grist 10.05.2006">{{cite web |url=http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/5/10/135951/485 |work=[[Grist]] |author=Tom Philpott |title=ADM, high-fructose corn syrup, and ethanol |date=10 May 2006 |accessdate=9 September 2011}}</ref>
and the price of [[maize|corn]] is kept low through government subsidies paid to growers.<ref>[http://www.iatp.org/iatp/factsheets.cfm?accountID=258&refID=89968 Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927203158/http://www.iatp.org/iatp/factsheets.cfm?accountID=258&refID=89968 |date=2007-09-27 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.allcountries.org/uscensus/1127_corn_acreage_production_and_value_by.html|title=Corn--Acreage, Production, and Value, by Leading States statistics - USA Census numbers|website=www.allcountries.org|accessdate=26 January 2018}}</ref> High-fructose corn syrup became an attractive substitute, and is preferred over cane sugar among the vast majority of American food and beverage manufacturers. Soft drink makers such as [[Coca-Cola]] and [[Pepsi]] use sugar in other nations, but switched to high-fructose corn syrup in the United States in 1984.<ref name="Freedom 04.1998">{{cite web |url=http://www.fff.org/freedom/0498d.asp |title=The Great Sugar Shaft |author=James Bovard |date=April 1998 |work=Freedom Daily |publisher=The Future of Freedom Foundation |accessdate=9 September 2011 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110829181738/http://www.fff.org/freedom/0498d.asp |archivedate=29 August 2011 |df= }}</ref>

The average American consumed approximately {{convert|37.8|lb|kg|abbr=on}} of high-fructose corn syrup in 2008, versus {{convert|46.7|lb|kg|abbr=on}} of sucrose.<ref>
{{cite web | url=http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/FoodConsumption/FoodAvailQueriable.aspx | title=U.S. per capita food availability&nbsp;– Sugar and sweeteners (individual) | publisher=[[Economic Research Service]] | date=2010-02-16| accessdate=2010-03-12}}
</ref>

In recent years it has been hypothesized that the increase of high-fructose corn syrup usage in processed foods may be linked to various [[Fructose#Potential health effects|health conditions]], including [[metabolic syndrome]], [[hypertension]], [[dyslipidemia]], [[hepatic steatosis]], [[insulin resistance]], and [[obesity]]. However, there is to date little evidence that high-fructose corn syrup is any unhealthier, calorie for calorie, than sucrose or other simple sugars. The fructose content and fructose:glucose ratio of high-fructose corn syrup do not differ markedly from clarified apple juice.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46575508_Sugar_composition_of_depectinized_apple_juices_Composicao_de_acucares_em_sucos_de_macas_despectinizados|title=Sugar composition of depectinized apple juices Composição de açúcares em sucos de maçãs despectinizados|first1=Gilvan|last1=Wosiacki|first2=Alessandro|last2=Nogueira|first3=Frederico|last3=Denardi|first4=Renato|last4=Vieira|date=1 January 2009|publisher=|accessdate=26 January 2018|via=ResearchGate}}</ref> Some researchers hypothesize that fructose may trigger the process by which fats are formed, to a greater extent than other simple sugars.<ref name="Samuel 2011">{{Harvnb|Samuel|2011}}.</ref> However, most commonly used blends of high-fructose corn syrup contain a nearly one-to-one ratio of fructose and glucose, just like common sucrose, and should therefore be metabolically identical after the first steps of [[sucrose phosphorylase|sucrose metabolism]], in which the sucrose is split into fructose and glucose components. At the very least, the increasing prevalence of high-fructose corn syrup has certainly led to an increase in added sugar calories in food, which may reasonably increase the incidence of these and other diseases.<ref name="Collino 2011">{{Harvnb|Collino|2011}}.</ref>
<!--==Sweet potatoes==
After the 21st century it was discovered that sugar can be obtained from sweet potatoes. And in some areas of South Asia this practice is common by sugar mill owners.{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}}-->

==See also==
{{portal|Food|History}}
* [[Sugar Cane and Rum Museum]]
* ''[[Castillo Serrallés]]''
* ''[[Hacienda Mercedita]]''
* [[Food history]]
* [[Sugar industry]]
* [[Sugar Museum (Berlin)]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book|ref=harv | last1=Sato|first1=Tsugitaka|title=Sugar in the Social Life of Medieval Islam|date=2014|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9789004277526|page=30|url=http://www.brill.com/products/book/sugar-social-life-medieval-islam}}
* {{cite book |ref=harv |last=Abbott |first=Elizabeth
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|location=London and New York |publisher=Duckworth Overlook
|isbn=978-0-7156-3878-1 }}
* {{cite book |ref=harv |editor-last=Adas |editor-first=Michael
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* {{cite book |ref=harv
|last = Abulafia |first = David |authorlink = David Abulafia
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* {{cite book |ref=harv |last=Benitez-Rojo |first=Antonio |authorlink=Antonio Benitez-Rojo
|year=1996 |origyear=1992 |title=The Repeating Island
|location=Durham |publisher=Duke University Press
|isbn=0-8223-1865-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTYWZnlz0akC }}
* {{cite book |ref=harv |last=Bernstein |first=William
|year=2009 |origyear=2008 |title=A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World
|location=London |publisher=Atlantic Books
|isbn=9781843548034}}
* {{cite book |ref=harv |last=Collino |first=M |title=High dietary fructose intake: Sweet or bitter life?
|journal=World J Diabetes |volume=2 |issue=6 |pages=77–81 |date=June 2011
|pmid=21860690}}
* {{cite book |ref=harv |last=Kieschnick |first=John
|year=2003 |title=The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture
|location=Princeton |publisher=University Press
|isbn=0-691-09676-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sgkKbE-9EhAC }}
* {{cite journal |ref=harv |last1=Marshall |first1=RO |last2=Kooi |first2=ER |title=Enzymatic conversion of D-glucose to D-fructose
|journal=Science |volume=125 |issue=3249 |pages=648–9 |date=April 1957
|pmid=13421660 |doi=10.1126/science.125.3249.648 }}
* {{cite book |ref=harv |last=Mintz |first=Sidney Wilfred |authorlink=Sidney Mintz
|year=1986 |origyear=1985 |title=Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History
|location=London |publisher=Penguin
|isbn=978-0-14-009233-2 }}
* {{cite book |ref=harv |last=Parker |first=Matthew
|year=2011 |title=The Sugar Barons: Family, Corruption, Empire and War
|location=London |publisher=Hutchinson
|isbn=978-0-09-192583-3 |url=http://www.matthewparker.co.uk/the-sugar-barons/The-Sugar-Barons.html }}
* {{cite book |ref=harv |last=Ponting |first=Clive |authorlink=Clive Ponting
|year=2000 |title=World History: A New Perspective
|location=London |publisher=Chatto & Windus
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* {{cite journal |ref=harv |last=Samuel |first=VT |title=Fructose induced lipogenesis: from sugar to fat to insulin resistance
|journal=Trends Endocrinol Metab |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=60–65 |date=February 2011
|pmid=21067942 |doi=10.1016/j.tem.2010.10.003}}
* {{cite book |ref=harv |last=Sen |first=Tansen
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|location=Manoa |publisher=Asian Interactions and Comparisons, a joint publication of the University of Hawaii Press and the Association for Asian Studies
|isbn=0-8248-2593-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=blBTHAY_A4wC }}
* {{cite book |ref=harv |last=Sharpe |first=Peter |year=1998 |title=Sugar Cane: Past and Present |location=Illinois |publisher=Southern Illinois University |url=http://www.siu.edu/~ebl/leaflets/sugar.htm |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080518084734/http://www.siu.edu/~ebl/leaflets/sugar.htm |archivedate=2008-05-18 |df= }}
* {{cite journal |ref=harv |last=Watts |first=Sheldon J
|title=Yellow Fever Immunities in West Africa and the Americas in the Age of Slavery and Beyond: A Reappraisal
|journal=Journal of Social History |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=955–967 |date=April 2001
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* {{cite book |ref=harv |last=Wilson |first=C Anne
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* {{cite book |ref=harv |last=Wood |first=Peter H
|year=1996 |origyear=1974 |title=Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion
|location=New York |publisher=Norton
|isbn=978-0-393-31482-3 }}

{{Sugar}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sugar}}
[[Category:History of food and drink]]
[[Category:History of sugar| ]]

Revision as of 02:25, 18 February 2019

A sugarloaf was the traditional shape of sugar in the eighteenth century: a semi-hard sugar cone that required a sugar axe or hammer to break up and sugar nips to reduce to usable pieces

Sugar was first produced from sugarcane plants in northern India sometime after the first century CE.<ref>*{{cite book|ref=harv | last1=Sato|first1=Tsugitaka|title=Sugar in the Social Life of Medieval Islam|date=2014|publisher=BRILL|isbn=9789004277526|page=01|url=http://www.brill.com/products/boo

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