History and Influence in the World of Sugar

Sugar is one of the most widely used additives worldwide today, remaining in demand, and yet its origin and spread throughout the world is not widely recognized. It is used across cultures, nations, and economic statuses, but it wasn’t always this way. Sugar is extracted from sugarcane plant juice and is historically connected to the slave trade around the world. This plant has played a significant role in the making of the modern world. This essay is shall focus on the discussion of the spread of sugarcane to different continents and its role in bringing about significant changes in world history, further highlighting the influence that sugar had in the making of Natal’s history

Sugar is said to have been known by the occupants of India and China in the early periods. Sugar cane though is native to Polynesia and that is where it was invested. However, small pieces of it were often found on the shores of other parts of the world. This explains its movement to India and China. Sugarcane was believed to have been made known to the western parts of the world by Alexander the Great, where he found it in the Indus Valley in 325 BC. From India, where sugar was made from a cane called puri, it spread to Arabia, Egypt, and the Western parts of Asia, and in the eighteenth century, to Indonesia and Polynesia. The introduction of sugar in Europe started from the Middle Ages as it first arrived in the Mediterranean.

It is believed that sugarcane was known in Morea, Rhodes, Malta, and Syria before the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. There is also evidence that it was used and planted in Egypt, around Assouan, as early as the year 766. In Spain, it was introduced by the Moors after they settled in Peninsula in the 714. The Moors cultivated the plant and were successful at doing so. Their plantations soon expanded over a vast part of the southern shores of Valencia and Granada. Sugar production and sugarcane were introduced in other parts of the world around the same time, namely in Syria, Egypt, Palestine, North Africa, Cyprus, Dodecanese, Crete, and Sicily. In these regions, it was introduced from Persia after one hundred years on the death of Mohamed. It was carried on as a profitable and expanding concern for two hundred years, from about 1300, by the Christians and the Muslims. Sugar-making caught on around this time by the Christians and Moslems. Tracing the origin, expansion, and early cultivation of the sugarcane into one specific country is ambitious. In a book by Sydney W. Mintz, it is written that sugarcane was first believed to have been domesticated and came from New Guinea around 8 000 B.C and then, two hundred years later, was imported to the Philippines, and India, and possibly Indonesia as well. As sugarcane was becoming widely noticed in parts of the world by 1300, some countries were unaware of the plant just yet. 

Sugar reached England in 1319 and during this time it was imported in small quantities as it was only used for medical purposes and its price was too high for it to be consumed with food. It then reached Denmark in 1374 and Sweden in 1390. Sugar was not in high demand until the introduction of tea and coffee in these regions. Although sugarcane was brought into the European regions, it is believed to be native to the islands and continent of America. Many sources claim to have found sugarcane growing without cultivation on the banks of the River Plata in Mexico by 1556, as this region was never visited by the Portuguese. Many also say sugarcane was also found in the river mouths of the Mississippi. Europe became richer of the matter of sugar production. There is no evidence of sugarcane being cultivated in the West Indies until the Portuguese and Spaniards planted them there. Other some writers have found sources that maintain the natural growth of sugarcane in America, some have also maintained that sugarcane was not known by the Americas and its islands until Europeans planted it near these areas. These writers maintain that the Portuguese introduced it in Madeira by 1420, where it was introduced from Sicily, and by 1503, it was in the Canary Islands, and it reached the West Indies in 1510.

Early in the seventeenth century, the sugar trade in St. Thomas Island was successful until it was destroyed by the Dutch in 1610. Sugarcane was taken from Brazil to Barbados in 1641. In 1650, the British planters who were in Barbados had increased profits as sugar production, manufacturing and distribution became dominant in the region. Around this time, many Europeans learned about sugar, and they increased their consumption of it, and by the 1800s, sugar had become widely used across the European continent by the wealthy. In 1800, the United Kingdom consumed more than 18 pounds of sugar per head, per year, as the sugar back then was highly-priced. Sugarcane spread to parts of the world slowly during the first thousand years of its introduction, but it increasingly got recognized and widely used by many regions of the world.

Slavery is one event that came with the introduction of sugarcane. Slavery, however, was common in the early centuries. Slaves were brought to work at the sugar plantations and cultivation fields in the Caribbean. The modern slave trade began in Europe, where slaves were brought from Africa. The Portuguese also participated in the slave trade by selling them to the Spanish through their trading stations in West Africa. Slavery forcefully forced men and women to work under forced labor, and by the mid-sixteenth century, the sugar industry in most parts of Africa was led by the Europeans. The slaves were brought directly from Africa to work on the sugar plantations in the Caribbean. By the eighteenth century, sugar was still widely traded and sold across countries as it dominated all other substances, remaining in demand. The demand for sugar enabled the continued demand for slaves in the Caribbean. From 1783 to 1793, the British controlled more than half of the sugar trade. It is safe to say that sugar consumption by the Europeans reached its peak in the eighteenth century. Before the wide use and addiction to sugar by the Europeans, the rich northern Europeans used honey in their foods, although it had been previously used in the ancient times for medical and religious purposes. As sugar was produced in most parts of the world during the eighteenth century, America also brought in slaves using the slave trade for them to work at the sugar plantations, in places like Louisiana.

Sugar slavery caused many deaths, and it led to the unfair and unjust treatment of slaves, mostly in the Caribbean. Europeans became addicted to sugar, and this led to something that could have been avoided, had the British utilised the labor of animals when it was introduced. The slaves were emancipated from Barbados in 1834. After the freedom of slaves, slavery became illegal and machinery was used to reduce the labor of men. In a reading by Hobhouse, the effects that slavery has had in the making of this modern world are highlighted as follows, as sugar is most common today it has led to digestive problems and addiction to it by many, this might be due to its sweetness, as most people seemingly enjoy it. It has affected the Caribbean greatly, so that Amerindians, the indigenous peoples of the Americas, have disappeared completely. Today, most people in the Caribbean suffer from starvation as many were left with nowhere to go after the emancipation of the slaves. There is a scant trade between the Caribbean and the rest of the world. The people in the region are culturally and religiously confused, and the region is overcrowded with incompatible people. Young blacks in England suffer from unemployment, and this leads to drug abuse, street violence, way-out music, and religion. There has also been improved tourism at the islands, that has improved the lives of the population, but there are wrong people in this region.

As the slave got emancipation in the Caribbean and other parts of Europe, something else was about to happen in the Natal region of South Africa. The Natal region had a successful sugar industry, inaugurated in 1856, its success was due to it being made from real sugarcane. The success of it can be attributed to the indenture system that was introduced in South Africa in 1860. Black South Africans were not prepared to work for the white settlers. Indians were brought in to work as cultivators of sugarcane. Indians came to work in sugar plantations near the coast from 1860. At that time, more than 150 000 Indians came to work in the region. They were specially brought in to work in this region as it had been clear in the previous years that sugarcane grew were near the coast, and this could easily increase profit for the colonial government. The government saw this system as beneficial to them as the blacks were at some point, prepared to work for wages but only used their own conditions. The system was also favored because it meant that the workers were going to work in the region for a cheaper price. The Indians were brought into the region under the indenture system to work under contracts of five years, under the Coolie Law. It also assured the permanent residency of Indians in Africa. By the time the indenture system was used in South Africa, it was already established in European countries. 

Originally, the Indians were attracted by the system, not because they were poor, but Natal was considered the highest paying indenture system. Under the Indenture System, workers were protected by the law, and they also received wages, which was unlike the slavery of the previous years. The Indentured laborers worked in other fields in the Natal region, but sugar was the one with the most workers. Initially, the workers did not own land, but as the system grew, some workers were allowed to be landowners even after the end of their five-year contracts. For the Indians that could not afford to buy land, renting small patches of land was their option, and by the early twentieth century, Indians were able to secure land as owners or renters.

The growth of the Indians threatened many whites in Natal, and this led to the introduction of the annual tax for both the indentured laborers and the former indentured laborers in 1895. Expectedly enough, the Indians did not respond well to the tax introduction, and this led to many strikes in the Natal region by sugarcane indentures all many others. At the decline of the system in Natal in the early twentieth century, the sugar industry was no longer only reliant on the indentured laborers, and by the end of the system, only a few indentured workers worked at sugarcane fields. As the system ended, in 1911, the requirement of annual tax payments also ended a few years later.

The Indians contributed much of their efforts into the growth of the agriculture industry in Natal during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as they did not only plant sugarcane but also domesticated and sold fruits and vegetables at a cheap price. This led to the growth of capitalism in Colonial Natal. The migration of indentured laborers affected the culture and economy of the country. During the time of the system, the was a need for Indians to preserve their culture and religion. The Indians were growing many produce in and around the Natal region. In his articles, Freud writes about a family that was able to own a sugar mill and employed many Indians to work at the mill as cane producers. At that time, a handful of Indians were poor. By 1920, the Indian farming community was growing as many Indians started growing sugarcane. Sugarcane cultivation and manufacturing were unchangeable for about 50 years. It was tough for the Indian farmers of Natal as many of them were not as successful as other farmers of the region. This was due to the lack of basic necessities for a successful sugar farm, as many of the farmers could not even buy fertilizers. Some were unable to their own cane to the sugar mills. 

As there were a few sugarcane farmers in Natal, there were also market gardeners who were different from the cane farmers, as they did not own land, and they were more in number than the cane farmers, but they were poorer than sugarcane farmers. The market gardening work attracted ex-indentured workers away from the sugar fields, as this line of work provided quicker payment plans. As they did not own land, they did not experience the difficulties of having to buy land. Market gardening did not provide a better lifestyle as the workers worked for peanuts, but it did provide a way for Indian families to enter the urban economy.

By the late 1940s, the South African government acknowledged Indians as permanent citizens of the country. The government, however, saw Indians as not formally trained, thus making it hard for them to contribute into the economy of the country as trained professionals.

In the twentieth century, as apartheid had already begun, many Indians, like blacks, could not buy land. Many changes came in the late 1900s that allowed for Indian farmers to better themselves. In 1973, Indian farmers were allowed to be members of the National Farmers' Association, and they were able to get loans for sugar farming. By 1991, Indian farmers were producing more sugar than they had in previous years. They were able to have access to improved machinery and farming equipment. Market gardening and sugarcane planting both allowed for the survival of Indians in the Natal region after the end of the indentured system. 

Today, sugar is a basic necessity that is widely used and is freely available to everyone, though it was previously available only to those who were wealthy. Sugar has led to addiction, as most people, not all, enjoy its sweetness of it. Its cultivation resulted in many deaths and the unfair removal of people from their homes, having a negative effect, so much so that those scars are still relevant today. In Europe and most parts in the world, it was this unfair treatment of people, that affects the culture of many societies today. In Natal, sugar planters were not slaves but they were also stripped of their homelands, leading to the diversity of people that we see in Durban and many parts of South Africa today. The trading of sugar may have led to many negatives in the past, but the beauty of it we can see through the interaction of people across culture, religion, color, and race. It has, arguably, brought people together.

References

1. Freund, Bill. “A Passage from India: Indentured Immigrants come to Natal, 1860-1911” in Insiders and Outsiders: The Indian Working Class of Durban (1910-1990): 3.
2. Freund, Bill. “The Rise and Fall of an Indian Peasantry in Natal”, Journal of Peasant Studies (1991, XVIII: 2): 263-287.
3. Hobhouse, Henry. “Sugar and the Slave Trade” in Seeds of Change: Six Plants that Transformed Mankind (New York: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2005): 53-113.
4. Mintz, Sydney. Sweetness and Power: The place of Sugar in Modern History: New York: Penguin Books, 1986
5. Nowbath, Ranji. Emigrant Coolie: 1860-1930: 1860
6. Reed, William. History of Sugar and Sugar yielding plants: London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1866