EARLY HISTORY

India, the land that Kipling has called “the grim stepmother of mankind,” is, according to the best authorities, the original habitat of the sugar cane; and there is but little doubt that the properties of the plant were known to the Hindustani many centuries before the Christian era. Nothing concerning it is found in the Old Testament, the Talmud or in the oldest Hindu literature; and even in Buddha’s time (500 B. C.) it was little known.

The legend runs that sugar cane was created by the famous hermit Vishva Mitra to serve as heavenly food in the temporary paradise arranged by him for the sake of Raja Trishanku. It was the desire of this prince to be translated to heaven during his lifetime, but Indra, the ruler of the celestial realms, had refused to admit him. In order to gratify Trishanku’s wish, Vishva Mitra prepared a temporary paradise for him. When a reconciliation between Indra and Trishanku was brought about, the paradise was demolished and all its luxuries destroyed save a few, among which was sugar cane. This subsequently spread over the land of mortals as a lasting token of Vishva Mitra’s miraculous deeds.

Among the Chinese the first historical mention occurs in writings of the eighth century B. C., where the fact is recorded that their knowledge of sugar cane was derived from India. That it was considered of great value by the Chinese is shown by manuscripts of 200 B. C., wherein it is stated that the kingdom of Funan paid its tribute to China in sugar cane. From this it may be inferred that the secret of extracting crystals from the sugar-cane juice had not been discovered.

More than three centuries before Christ, the triumphant progress of Alexander the Great was halted upon the banks of the river Indus by the refusal of his troops to venture farther eastward. On their return journey, the Macedonian soldiers carried the “honey-bearing reed” to Europe.

A number of classical writers of the first century allude to the sweet sap of the Indian reed and to the granulated, salt-like product imported from India under the name ofsaccharum, or σάκχαρι, from the Sanskritçarkarā, gravel, sugar. The names of sugar in modern European languages are derived through the Arabic from the Persianshakar.

The people dwelling in the valleys of the Ganges possessed a knowledge of boiling sugar juice, and this spread from there to China in the first half of the seventh century. Sugar refining, however, could not then have been known, for Marco Polo[5]states that the Chinese learned this from Egyptian travelers only during the Mongol period, some five hundred years later. Von Lippmann says that solid sugar began to be known in India somewhere between 300 and 600 A. D., probably nearer the latter date.[6]In the Middle Ages, the best sugar came from Egypt[7]; and in India today, coarse sugar is still called “Chinese” and fine sugar “Cairene” or “Egyptian.”

The Nestorians, a Christian religious sect in Gondisāpūr, India, planted sugar cane in Persia about 500 A.D. When Heraclius,[8]the Byzantine emperor, pillaged the palace of Dastargerd, Persia, in 627 A. D., solid sugar was taken among the other loot.[9]This is the first authentic evidence of crystallization. At the time of the Arabian conquest in the year 639, sugarwas “prepared with art” in Gondisāpūr; and its manufacture on a large scale was carried on at Shuster, Sūs[10]and Askar-Makram[11]through the Middle Ages. Thaálibí, a writer of the eleventh century, says that Askar-Makram had no equal for the quality and quantity of its sugar, “notwithstanding the great production in Irāk, Jarjān and India.” It used to pay fifty thousand pounds of sugar to the Sultan in annual tribute.[12]Persian physicians of the time attributed extraordinary healing powers to sugar, and used it freely in the practice of their art.

Mohammed’s[13]religious wars carried the knowledge of sugar throughout the cities of the then civilized world. The Arabs first learned of it when they overran Persia. They took to it eagerly, and under their rule a great number of plantations were started. Artificial irrigation was employed in the growing of the cane, and the juice was expressed by means of millstones. At this period, however, sugar was looked upon as a rare and costly luxury, to be indulged in only by the wealthy, and sparingly even by them.

Arabian doctors who were well advanced in learning gave sugar an important place in their pharmacopœia. The Moslem armies took it westward with them; and when Amru[14]conquered Egypt (640-646 A. D.), it was introduced in that country. Careful methods of cultivation, coupled with the Egyptians’ intimate knowledge of chemistry, brought about excellent results. This cultured people had a simple process for purifying and recrystallizing saltpeter, and they soon found that sugar could be similarly treated.

The first crystals were remelted; and to the liquor so obtained albumen and lime were added. The precipitated impurities were removed by filtration, and the clear syrup boiled down to a grain once more. The syrup, or mother-liquor in whichthese grains remained after boiling, was eliminated by washing, leaving the white sugar crystals, which in point of quality far surpassed any product then known.

From this time forward, the traffic in sugar began to gain in importance and volume. Nasiri Khosrau, in his account of his travels in Egypt in the eleventh century, narrates that at the celebration of the great Ramazán feast, the Sultan’s table was decorated with sweetmeats consisting entirely of marzipan[15]modeled into shapes of orange trees and statues.

The continuation of the movement of the Arabs toward the west carried the cultivation of sugar over the entire northern coast of Africa and thence into Spain in the year of the conquest of Granada by the Moors (715 A. D.). It made its way to Sicily in 703; it was found growing at Assuan, on the Nile, in 766, and the Crusaders discovered important sugar plantations in Tripoli, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, Antioch and other places in the Levant. Commercial relations between these points and the principal Italian cities were established during the Crusades, and a considerable trade in sugar followed.

Sugar-cane cultivation seems to have appealed to the Crusaders as a profitable venture—so much so that they actively interested themselves in it, making Tyre an important center of the traffic. King Baldwin and various orders of knighthood established large cane plantations in Antioch, Syria and Cyprus and did much to advance sugar production in those countries.

The Crusaders who had acquired a taste for sugar when in the Far east naturally wished to continue its use after their return home; thus, a trade sprung up between northern Europe and Venice, Genoa and Pisa.

After the fall of Acre in 1291, the Crusaders lost their foothold in Asia Minor; but Tyre, Beirut, Antioch and the valley of the Jordan continued to produce good crops of sugar, whileDamascus and Tripoli became refining centers. Cyprus, still under Venetian rule, extended its trade in sugar, and sent considerable quantities annually to the mother city. All this time the production in Egypt went steadily forward.

This prosperity was rudely interrupted by the aggression of the Turks. Constantinople was captured in 1453 and Trebizond fell in 1461. The other commercial towns of Asia Minor and all of Genoa’s Black Sea colonies followed in quick succession. Trade between Europe and Asia Minor decreased as a matter of course and the manufacture of sugar languished under Turkish rule.

In 1517 Cairo was taken by the Turks, and Egypt became a province of the Ottoman empire, with disastrous results to the sugar industry there. In 1522 Rhodes, and in 1571 Cyprus, passed under the sway of the Turk; but by that time sugar cultivation in these islands had fallen off greatly, while in Sicily it had completely died out.

Other causes militated to bring about the decline of the sugar trade in these countries. The Portuguese took sugar cane to Madeira in 1419. In 1432 they captured and colonized the Azores; and between 1456 and 1462 they acquired the Cape Verde islands. São Thomé, Principe and Annobon were annexed in 1496; and in that same year the Spaniards colonized the Canaries. Sugar cane grew luxuriantly in the mild, moist climate of these islands, and the cost of production by slave labor was so low that neither Cyprus nor Sicily could compete; consequently, the once large and prosperous sugar trade of the Mediterranean became a thing of the past.

During the Middle Ages, Venice was the chief sugar-distributing center in Europe. One of the earliest references to sugar in Great Britain is that concerning one hundred thousand pounds shipped to London in 1319 by Tomasso Loredano, a Venetian merchant. Wool, which at that time constituted themost important staple of English products, was exchanged for sugar. In the same year, an entry appears in the accounts of the Chamberlain of Scotland, showing a payment for sugar at the rate of one shilling and nine pence halfpenny per pound. It is said that at the end of the fifteenth century a citizen of Venice received a reward of 100,000 crowns ($111,940) for having invented the process of making loaf sugar. Vasco da Gama’s exploit in finding the way to Calicut by sea in 1498 deprived Venice of her position as a dominant commercial center; and new routes for the world’s trade were opened up. The discovery of America exercised a still greater influence upon the production and distribution of sugar.

Christopher Columbus’ first attempt to establish sugar growing in Santo Domingo in 1493[16]was not a success; but when negro slaves were brought to the West Indies by the Portuguese and the Spaniards, the industry took a new lease of life, and with slave labor, ideal climate and fertile soil, it increased abundantly. As illustrative of the extensive development in Santo Domingo, it is interesting to note that Charles V of Spain obtained from import taxes on Santo Domingan sugar the vast sums of money expended in the building of the royal palaces at Madrid and Toledo.[17]

Brazil was discovered by Pinzon in 1499[18]and sugar cane was taken there from Madeira. About thirty-three years later plantations had been laid out and the first sugar factory built. The year 1590 saw one hundred and two mills in operation in the provinces of Bahia and Pernambuco; and in 1600 the quantity of sugar exported from Brazil was 15,000 tons. At that time Brazil belonged to Spain, which had annexed Portugal and her colonies in 1580. It was conquered by the Dutch in 1629, and agreat many sugar plantations and factories were destroyed; but these were subsequently restored by the new rulers. The Dutch, in turn, were expelled in 1655; and in 1661 Brazil was acknowledged to be a Portuguese possession. The sugar trade suffered, however, on account of the banishment of twenty thousand Dutch in 1655, and also through the discovery of gold in 1725, which drew the laborers from the sugar fields and mills; and the production fell off to a large extent.

Christopher ColumbusFra Sebastiano Del PiomboCopyright, 1906. Braun, Clément et Cie., Braun et Cie., Successeurs

Christopher Columbus

Fra Sebastiano Del Piombo

The island of St. Christopher (now St. Kitts) was occupied in 1625 by both the English and the French. Ten years later the French took Guadeloupe and Martinique; Barbados became a British possession in 1627, and Jamaica was annexed in 1656. Sugar cane was planted in all these colonies, but through lack of knowledge and experience the product obtained was of indifferent quality. A decided improvement was brought about when the Dutch, who were expelled from Brazil, came to the islands in 1655.

Santo Domingo was taken over permanently by the French in 1697 after it had previously been occupied and abandoned by them. From this date the industry throve there and for upward of one hundred years Santo Domingo ranked among the foremost of the sugar-producing islands of the West Indies. Tyranny and cruel treatment caused the slaves to revolt in 1791; the whites who failed to escape were exterminated and the sugar plantations and mills were destroyed.

Santo Domingo has never recovered the prestige in the sugar world that she lost in this way. Her misfortune gave a great opportunity to Jamaica, whose production increased so rapidly that at the close of the eighteenth century she outstripped all the other West Indian islands. The falling off in Santo Domingo stimulated the industry in Cuba as well. As a dependency of Spain, Cuba was hampered by a number of restrictions; these were repealed in 1772, after which the sugar tonnage grew apace.

St. Eustatius and Curaçao belonging to the Dutch, and St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas to Denmark, also came in for their share of the benefit growing out of the impetus given to the sugar trade at this time. It must be borne in mind, however, that they were conveniently situated for sugar smuggling, of which there was not a little during the American Revolutionary war.

In the countries of South America, Brazil excepted, the sugar trade had become well established. French planters settled in Cayenne in 1634 and in Surinam six years later, but production was handicapped by the difficulty attendant upon securing labor, and this condition continued to exist even after the taking of Surinam, Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice by the Dutch. Finally the trouble was overcome by bringing in slaves, and with the end of the French war the sugar industry began to prosper, especially in Surinam. During subsequent hostilities these colonies were taken by France, afterwards by England, and later still they reverted to the Dutch. Today they are all British with the exception of Surinam and Cayenne.

Sugar cane was not known in Peru at the time of Pizarro’s first expedition to that country (1527), but it was brought there shortly afterward. In Chile and the Argentine its introduction was comparatively recent. The Jesuits took it from Santo Domingo to Louisiana in 1751, and in Mexico it dates back to the time of Cortés.

The rapidity of the increase in the production of the Americas threatened the plantations of Madeira, the Cape Verde islands and the Canaries with extinction and drove them from the world’s markets.

Sugar cane was planted by the French in the Ile de France (Mauritius) in 1747, and some years later in Bourbon (Réunion) and sugar made in these islands was sent to Europe about the end of the eighteenth century.

In Java sugar cane has been grown since a very remote period. It was probably brought there by Chinese traders and there is evidence that the Chinese introduced it in the Philippine islands, as the names of the implements and methods used there distinctly point to Chinese origin.

The cultivation of sugar cane in Australia was begun only fifty years ago; it was started in the Fiji islands in 1880, while Captain Cook found cane growing luxuriantly in the Hawaiian islands when he discovered them in 1778.

The wars between Great Britain and France during the latter part of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth had a very bad effect on the cane-sugar trade and its development. There was constant fighting in West Indian waters and many merchant vessels were taken as prizes; a disastrous state of affairs for planters and merchants alike. After the battle of Trafalgar had definitely established British supremacy on the seas, Napoleon put into effect his “Continental System,” which dealt a severe blow to cane sugar. This opens up a new and interesting chapter in the history of the industry.

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