How did sugar shape the global economy?
Although the slavery factor of the sugar industry was really bad and inhumane, the overall
sugar revolution had a huge (positive) impact on the global economy which eventually led to
the industrial revolution.
Sugar slavery was an important part of “The Trade Triangle” in the trans-atlantic. Europeans
introduced sugar to other countries mainly through the slave trade and the triangle that
connected Africa, Europe and America. Europeans realized that they could make a lot of
money by using cheap labour to work on sugar crops and hereby enriching their mother
country.
The American climate was ideal for sugar crops. Slaves were brought to America by the
Europeans because the American people had very little resistance to European illnesses.
African people on the other hand had more immunity against these diseases. This made the
African people the perfect candidates for the slave trade in the trans-atlantic.
Most slaves were traded in the 18th century. Over 6 million slaves were taken from Africa
during that time. These slaves were taken captive in vicious attacks by the colonists. Not
only were they taken by the European people, but also by their own people. Some of the
African people sold their family members to the European people to pay their debt.
Even though Portuguese people where the first people to take the slaves to America and
connect the trade triangle, other countries soon followed in their footsteps. They colonized
people and made them slaves, just to improve their own economic status.
The work that these slaves did and the products that they made, were sent to Europe to be
sold therefore developing the global economy.
Plantation economy was essentially dragging because the plantation was ‘owned’ by
another country. It was essentially used for exports rather than for local development.
There were not enough surplus products or capital from the good economic times to
provide for the locals during the periods of bad economic times. The plantation areas were
thus permanently dependant on the Europeans on an economic level. European economies
where heavily advantaged by the plantations and this had a bad impact on the plantation
economies itself.
Sugar was expensive and a luxury item at first, it was seen as a sign of wealth. Later on,
when the demand for sugar increased, sugar was produced on a bigger scale and it became
more affordable for the general population. When this happened, sugar became more of a
consumer product that had all kinds of negative impacts on the average consumers’ health.
Things like tooth decay, obesity, diabetes etc.
The producers were however not shaken by these negative effects and they resumed
production. Today sugar is still a very large industry and a large contributor to the global
economy.
Back then, large amounts of capital were needed to develop technology and to improve
overall manufacturing processes in the world. When sugar became domesticated, it led to
economic advances which meant more capital was being injected into the global economy.
With the capital that became available from the sugar plantations, it led to the start of the
industrial revolution and also the world as we know it today.
It is thus evident that although slavery was a terrible violation of human rights, the overall
sugar revolution had a largely positive impact on the shaping the global economy which
helped to make the industrial revolution possible. This makes us think whether the world
would have been the same without the sugar revolution.