In every industry during the development something changed, we often believed the outcome of the industry changed the world for the better, but there were points along the way which may or may not could have been better. One example of this is the industry of sugar. If you are researching an industry it is often good to research the companies history as well as books that are not positive to the industry. A case in point is the book Sugar written by James Walvin published by Robinson, London, UK in 2017. The title of the book is Sugar – the world corrupted from slavery to obesity.

Most of us including me really like sugar, it plays an important part of our lives. The fact that most of like sugar means sugar has played an important part of the history of the world. Prior to the 1600’s only the wealthy ate sugar and if you check out pictures of Louis XIV of France, you will not see him smiling. He had no teeth to smile with, but he loved sugar. Something changed and by the 1800’s, sugar was one of life’s essentials even for the poorest of working people. Sugar has remained in that position to the present and into the future.

If you examine sugar consumption, people eat lots with the highest in sugar producing countries of Brazil, Fiji and Australia with the Aussies eating over 100 lbs per person each year. Most of the sugar comes from cane sugar, sugar beet and corn or chemical sweeteners.

The problem with sugar is local sugar planters had labor shortages. The work is hard and for generations it was not mechanized expect in the mills to crush the cane to become usable for the consumer. The work was done by imported indentured labor but there was not enough of them and the plantations turned to the slave trade.

Sugar was first developed in Southeast Asia and China from the Ming dynasty traded the product including with Marco Polo. The crop came to Iran and Iraq through the Muslim empire across the Mediterranean into Spain. During the First Crusade, sugar cane saved Crusaders in times of starvation and nurtured a sweetness which survivors took home with them. The volumes of sugar production was small and the price expensive but the wealthy like sugar. At this time, if you check old movies the servings included the sugar bowl.

When Europeans discovered North America, after they looked for gold, they planted the crops from home and one of the crops that grew well was sugar cane. The pattern was to use the local indigenous people as labor to help clear the land and for cultivation. The next process was to bring in foreign labor. The people came from Africa and India.

The process began in Brazil and Brazilian sugar arrived in volume in Europe in the mid 1600’s. The mills were primarily in Antwerp (Amsterdam), Hamburg and London. The number of refineries in Antwerp increased from 40 to 110 between 1650 and 1770.

Until 1630, Brazilian sugar had no competition, at that time France and England acquired colonies in the Caribbean Sea. The islands of St. Kitt’s, Barbados, and Jamica were soon supplying English sugar while St. Domingue or Haiti was supplying French sugar. Sugar cane grew well and by 1770 over 90% of the 200,000 tons of sugar for Europe was coming from the Caribbean and two colonies Jamica produced 36,000 tons and St. Domingue produced 60,000 tons.

The sugar plantations were highly organized systems. The enslaved work force, like every acre of land was tabulated and regulated. Plantation paperwork, the ledgers of the plantation bookkeepers, documented every aspect of plantation life. Everything had a cost and a value.

Few questioned slavery, here was a system driven forward by sugar which yielded abundant wealth and wellbeing for everyone except the slaves. The volume of sugar brought down the price and the cost to buy sugar was affordable to everyone. In addition, in the military a sugar ration was given to all soldiers daily. Sugar was found from the highest priced shops to the local shop in towns and villages across the country.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, when you invest in a company, you are hoping they do well for their employees because often you do not work there. Your focus is the return on the investment or ROI, you see the returns and how the entire process works is less material to you as long as it is legal. Now days one hopes there are better ways to do the manual work and technology is continuing to improve which puts less strain on manual work. In our world, we may think would that have happened in the present time and the reality is it likely does. With every investment there are benefits to the investee and something negative about the industry, hopefully the negative continues to fall.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.