Polynesians have been using sugar on the islands of the
Pacific Ocean for over 5000 years. They discovered that the stalks of a giant
grass, which we call sugar cane, contained a sweet tasting liquid and could be
used in the preparation of food.
Sugar cane was then taken to the coastal
areas of India and for many centuries it spread no further. In 510 BC Darius,
the Persian Emperor, arrived to conquer the Indian sub-continent and found that
the people used a substance from a plant to sweeten their food. Until then the
Persian people had used honey, so they called sugar cane ‘the reed which gives
honey without bees’.
Some 200 years later, Alexander the Great conquered parts of
western Asia and took with him what he called the ‘sacred reed’. Before long,
Ancient Greece, and then Rome, began to import sugar as a luxury product and a
medicine. In the seventh century AD, the Arabs invaded Persia and as part of
their loot they took the sugar cane plant. Through invasions, conquests and
increased trading links with other countries, sugar cane reached a great number
of places, including Egypt, Rhodes, Cyprus, Morocco, Tunisia, Southern Spain and
Syria.
Columbus Spreads ‘The Sacred Reed’: In the
fifteenth century the Arabs took sugar cane to Spain and Portugal. Because it
was a highly profitable crop, both countries became very active in finding new
places to grow sugarcane. In 1493, the explorer Christopher Columbus took sugar
cane to the Caribbean Island of Santa Domingo for trial plantings. The crop
flourished in the hot sunshine, heavy rainfall and fertile soil. This was a
landmark in the history of sugar cane, because, as Columbus reported to Queen
Isabella of Spain, it grew faster in the West Indies than anywhere else in the
world.
In Britain, and throughout most of Europe, honey was
the ingredient used to sweeten food. The first Britons to taste cane sugar were
probably Christian Crusaders, soldiers who fought Muslims in the first Crusade
to Syria in 1099. As cane could not grow in the British climate, sugar was not
available to the people of Britain until trading and transport had developed
sufficiently for sugar to be brought into the country. It is reported that the
household of Henry III was using sugar in 1264, but not until 1319 was sugar in
more general use in Britain. It was sold at two shillings a pound (or £44 in
today's money) and therefore a luxury enjoyed by very few people. Sugar was such
a valuable commodity that it was kept in specially adapted tea caddies that
could be locked. Britain took Jamaica and other parts of the West Indies from
Spain in 1655 and from then on became more involved in the sugar industry. By
1750 there were 120 British refining factories, producing 30,000 tonnes of sugar
a year from sugar cane. Sugar was heavily taxed and by 1815 the British
government had collected a total of £3 million in sugar duties. In 1874 the
prime minister, William Gladstone, removed the tax and many more British people
could then afford sugar. All this time sugar beet was unknown as a source of
sugar.
Beet - A New Source of Sugar: Beet has been grown for food
and fodder since ancient times. However, it was not until 1747 that Andreas
Marggraf, a German chemist, succeeded in extracting sugar from beet in a form
which could be used in cooking. This crop was highly suited to the temperate
climate of Europe.
Sugar Beet Gains Importance: Cane sugar
continued to be the main source of sugar in Europe until the Napoleonic Wars,
which took place between France and Britain from 1793-1815. During this period
the British Navy blockaded French ports preventing goods from being imported.
The farming of sugar beet then developed rapidly on mainland Europe in order to
replace cane sugar. Once it was found that the crop grew well in European
climates, sugar from beet began to rival sugar from cane and, by 1880, beet was
the main source of sugar in Europe. Britain's interest in sugar beet arose
during World War I (1914-1918), when the British supply of cane sugar was
greatly reduced as German U-boats sunk the trading ships. The British Government
decided to intervene and began persuading farmers to grow sugar beet. Since
then, Britain has produced a significant proportion of its sugar from this
source.
ALL IN ALL a habit that changed
the taste of the
world.
