The Sugar Revolution

THE SUGAR REVOLUTION
Until the 1640s the chief crop of the Lesser Antilles was tobacco. Tobacco could be profitably
grown on small acreages with a small labour force. No expensive equipment was needed.
Besides the Lesser Antilles, tobacco was also being grown in the American colonies, especially
Virginia. The result was over-production and a glut in the European market. As prices fell, the
islands tried to stabilise the production of tobacco by cutting back on planting. Tobacco exports
fell but what was really needed was a substitute crop, since the Lesser Antilles could not hope to
compete with Virginian tobacco. Cotton, ginger, annatto and indigo were all tried but none were
in great demand in Europe.
The obvious substitute was sugar which was becoming very popular in Europe. The difficult and
expensive business of producing sugar was introduced to the French and English settlers by the
Dutch, who had been growing sugar in Pernambuco (Brazil) but were being harassed by
Portuguese authorities who were determined to drive them out. After 1640, Dutchmen began to
arrive in the French and English islands bringing with them their knowledge and experience.
Dutch merchants undertook to supply on credit the copper boilers, stills and equipment necessary
to establish an ingenio. As the demand for labour grew, white indentured labour was replaced by
enslaved Africans, also brought by the Dutch who had captured Portuguese slave barracoons in
West Africa. The Dutch also lent money to enterprising French and English settlers who wished
to expand their sugar-growing activities. Sugar was fetching five times the price of tobacco in
Europe and was always in short supply and the Dutch enjoyed a complete monopoly for the next
twenty years.
Sugar brought a revolutionary change in a few years to the West Indies. Firstly, the prosperity of
the islands increased. Sugar was “King”. Barbados is a good example of an island where in 1643,
houses were described as being “mean with things, only for necessity”, but in less than twenty
years the planters “plate, jewels and household stuff were estimated at £500,000, while their
estates looked from the sea like so many towns, each defended by its castle.”
Secondly, there were far-reaching demographic changes. Tobacco was grown by hundreds of
small proprietors with the assistance of white indentured labour. But sugar could be
economically grown only on a large estate using a big labour force and expensive equipment.
Enterprising planters used their own capital or borrowed from the Dutch to buy out their
neighbours. Many smallholders who sold their land either migrated to the American colonies,
Jamaica and Surinam or remained to work as overseers, bookkeepers or artisans on the sugar
estates. Beside this change in land ownership (many smallholders to a few plantocrats), there was
also the change in population, as large numbers of enslaved Africans were imported to work on
the plantations.
Thirdly, the system of slavery which was introduced did great moral and social harm. The white
plantocracy enjoyed complete control through slave laws which were generally harsh and cruel.
Fourthly, the prosperity of the sugar islands made them important to their mother countries as
sources of national wealth. After 1660 the governments of France and England sought greater
control of their islands through trade and navigation regulations. When the Dutch monopoly
ended, rivalry between France and England led to several wars, the coming and going of national
navies and much destruction in the islands.
Finally, in later years the islands suffered from the disadvantage of concentrating on a single
cash crop. In time of war, food shortage was acute as all good land was devoted to cane
cultivation. The islands became dependent on the American colonies for food supplies and
experienced great hardships after the War of American Independence. Decline set in soon after
with rising costs, competition from other sugar producing areas, the movement for the abolition
of slavery and increasing fear of slave rebellions.
Greenwood, Robert. A Sketchmap History of the Caribbean. Oxford. MacMillan. 1991. (46)

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THE SUGAR REVOLUTION

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