[Sca-cooks] Sugar was Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 8, Issue 79

[Terry Decker]

French, English and Dutch sugar cultivation in the Caribbean didn't take off 
until the 17th Century, but you are completely ignoring the Spanish and 
Portuguese.  The Spanish introduced sugar cultivation to the Caribbean in 
1493 and in 1516 Hispanola's Governor of Mines presented the Carlos I (Holy 
Roman Emperor Charles V) with six loaves of sugar from the New World, the 
first recorded import of sugar from the Caribbean.  In 1532, Charles paid 
for improvements to his palace in Madrid with taxes on Caribbean sugar

By 1520, the Portuguese were growing and importing sugar from plantations in 
Brazil.  The output of the Brazilian plantations permitted the Portuguese to 
control the European sugar market by 1583.

There is a constant increase in the sugar supply in Europe from the mid-15th 
to the 18th Century, which I believe is the definition of "expansion."  The 
direct competition of the French, English and Dutch in the 17th Century made 
sugar a commodity rather than a luxury.

Bear

<clipped>
    Sugar production did expand in the 15th C with Spain's acquisition
of the Canary Islands but I would not date the 'expansion' until the
17th Century when sugar plantations began to thrive in the Carribean.
<clipped>
  Susan