The Sugar trade Essay Example for Free

The Sugar trade Essay Oh the wonderful sweetness of money and sugar. What drove this so called sugar trade, you ask? Consumer demand, return on investment, and slavery were all very important aspects to the making of the historic events in which were the sugar trade. Consumer demand is the product of the addicting compounds which make up sugar, adding it to about everything sugar gradually became a very important aspect in the 1500s normal lifestyle. Return on investment is when you put money into something and get a profit or get your money black plus some, thus making a business out of something. Slavery was a huge part of the sugar trade, they are what made the sugar trade possible, they worked and worked constantly to provide enough sugar for familys in the New World. Consumer demand is one of many parts of the sugar trade but crucial to the survival and thriving love of the product. Sugar consumption approached nearly 10% of overall food expenditures for familys in the 1700s. After 1660 sugar imports always exceeded over all colonial products, that means that they had and wanted more sugar than any other product that was being shipped in from foreign countries. The sugar was shipped in something called a Hogshead, it was a big barrel weighing between 700 and 1200lbs, children loved to lick the remaining sugar left in the barrel after it has been emptied. People love the way sugar tastes, we have for longer than the 1500s, as a matter of fact sugar was cultivated and grown in New Guinea some 9000 years ago. The more slaves there was the more sugar was produced. Slavery is what dramatically helped the sugar trade happen and proceed for so many years before slavery became illegal and machines replaced their jobs. Slaves could be traded for many goods like powder, bullets, brass pans, tobacco pipes, and many other things. At 14 pence a day a laborer in England in the early 1700s earned about 18 British pounds a year. For instance the Hibbert family owned 1,618 slaves in 1833, that year they made 31,120 pounds. In modern day english money thats about $48523, back then that was worth a lot more than it sounds. Familys who could afford to buy slaves to start a sugar industry always made a profit and thrived at what they did. Even if you werent in the sugar trade its self you could buy and sell trades to people who were in the business and still make huge profits. The cost of slaves went up through the years of 1748-1768. Return on Investment, money in slave trade in British Caribbean doubles their money in the sugar trade. Bought slaves for 14 pounds and sold for around 32 pounds, they typically made a good profit depending on where they bought the slave and where they sold the slave. Gives England a trad position. Owned trading system, bought for cheap sold expensively. This system was called a Mercantile system or Mercantilism. This is how the system worked, the English would buy raw items for cheap and refined or made them into finished goods, in this case they would buy sugar cane and refine it until it was white refined sugar, this series of laws began in about 1660 the Parliament in England approved a entire series of new laws taking care of colonial shipping. In conclusion that is what drove the sugar trade, the financial advantages of making money influenced many familys mainly consisting of the rich to enter into the sugar industry and most if not all did very well with their business. Slavery is another huge part of the sugar trade, without them it might not have happened, people might not have made as much money either. Consumer demand, however, is obviously the most important part of what drove the sugar trade. Peoples addicting affection for the sweetening substance got greater with the increase in population and slaves. Sugar is still a huge part of our daily lives, Its branched out to many different countries now, Weve enjoyed sugar even as far back as 9000 years ago and still continue to love it today.