was a traditional form for sugar from the 17th to 19th centuries.
Sugar nips were required to break off pieces. The production of table sugar has a long history. Some scholars claim Indians discovered how to crystallize sugar during the
Gupta dynasty, around CE 350. Other scholars point to the ancient manuscripts of China, dated to the 8th century BCE, where one of the earliest historical mentions of
sugar cane is included along with the fact that their knowledge of sugar cane was derived from
India. The army of
Alexander the Great was halted on the banks of river
Indus by the refusal of his troops to go further east. They saw people in the Indian subcontinent growing sugarcane and making "granulated, salt-like sweet powder", locally called (), (), pronounced as () in Greek (Modern Greek, , ). On their return journey, the Greek soldiers carried back some of the "honey-bearing reeds". Sugarcane remained a limited crop for over a millennium. Sugar was a rare commodity and traders of sugar became wealthy. Venice, at the height of its financial power, was the chief sugar-distributing center of
Europe. Moors started producing it in
Sicily and
Spain. Only after the
Crusades did it begin to rival honey as a sweetener in Europe. The Spanish began cultivating sugarcane in the
West Indies in 1506 (
Cuba in 1523). The
Portuguese first cultivated sugarcane in
Brazil in 1532. Sugar remained a luxury in much of the world until the 18th century. Only the wealthy could afford it. In the 18th century, the demand for table sugar boomed in Europe and by the 19th century it had become regarded as a human necessity. The use of sugar grew from use in tea, to
cakes,
confectionery and
chocolates. Suppliers marketed sugar in novel forms, such as solid cones, which required consumers to use a
sugar nip, a pliers-like tool, in order to break off pieces. The demand for cheaper table sugar drove, in part, colonization of tropical islands and nations where labor-intensive sugarcane plantations and table sugar manufacturing could thrive. Growing sugar cane crop in hot humid climates, and producing table sugar in high temperature sugar mills was harsh, inhumane work. The demand for cheap labor for this work, in part, first drove slave trade from Africa (in particular West Africa), followed by indentured labor trade from South Asia (in particular India). Millions of slaves, followed by millions of indentured laborers were brought into the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Islands, East Africa, Natal, north and eastern parts of South America, and southeast Asia. The modern ethnic mix of many nations, settled in the last two centuries, has been influenced by table sugar. Beginning in the late 18th century, the production of sugar became increasingly mechanized. The
steam engine first powered a sugar mill in
Jamaica in 1768, and, soon after, steam replaced direct firing as the source of process heat. During the same century, Europeans began experimenting with sugar production from other crops.
Andreas Marggraf identified sucrose in
beet root and his student
Franz Achard built a sugar beet processing factory in Silesia (Prussia). The beet-sugar industry took off during the
Napoleonic Wars, when France and the continent were cut off from Caribbean sugar. In 2009, about 20 percent of the world's sugar was produced from beets.
Politics Because of its economic impact, the sugar industry has influenced political developments across the globe, especially in areas where sugar cane is grown. From August 25, 1917 to February 15, 1922, the United States Marine Corps was stationed in Cuba to protect American sugar interests. This situation is called the
Sugar Intervention. The sugar industry played a role in the
overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Labor and slavery Because the processing of cane sugar is labor-intensive, the sugar industry is associated with diverse labor controversies. Most seriously,
the sugar industry played a significant role in the
Atlantic slave trade, driving the demand for labor on plantations in the Americas. The problem persists: In 2022,
U.S. Customs and Border Protection blocked imports of
Central Romana sugar citing "information that reasonably indicates the use of forced labor in its operations".The Dalmia Bharat Sugar mill in Kolhapur, India allegedly locks underage girls into years of debt and forced labor, and pressure them into underage marriages and hysterectomies. Workers face low pay, debts,
heat stress and chemical exposure. Child labor has been reported in the sugar industry. ==Trade and economics==