what were its main uses?
2007-02-02 08:12:08 · 3 answers · asked by ? 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
It all seems to have been a matter of conspicuous consumerism. What started as a luxury began to be veiwed as a necessity. It became fashionable to impress one's friends, neighbours and dinner guests with large amounts of the new, expensive commodity, sugar. Recipes were invented to use sugar -- crystallised fruit, liqueurs, syrups, cakes of all kinds. This link will give some idea of the uses of sugar at the time. http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:60XT1KrTKFYJ:www.foodtimeline.org/foodcandy.html+sugar+seventeenth+eighteenth+centuries+sugar+consumption&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=27&gl=us
2007-02-02 08:44:38 · answer #1 · answered by Doethineb 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
AS a very popular product, not found anywhere else at the time but in sugar cane (sugar beets not yet developed), the West Indies (Caribbean) islands were the sole source for Europe.
During the American Revolution, the British had to expend extra effort to defend its sugar islands against the French and Dutch, in fact defending those islands was a more important goal than defeating the Americans.
2007-02-02 08:17:31 · answer #2 · answered by glenn 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As lame as it sounds, it was because it tasted good. So it was a hugely profitable cash crop.
2007-02-02 08:18:19 · answer #3 · answered by Ajax J 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋