Sugar-Free Lent: Day Thirty-Two

Sugar-Free Lent: Day Thirty-Two!

I was reading a bit more about the history of sugar.

We already know that it came from China and India and that it was used 2500 years ago. 

Sugar came to Europe in the 11th Century. The crusaders brought it back with them. That was around 1099.

Venice played an important role in the production of refined sugar. They had plantations in Crete and Cyprus which was part of the Venetian Republic and they held an monopoly in producing refined sugar till 1498. When the explorers like Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus went out to India and to the Caribbean Islands, (Columbus that was, Vasco da Gama went to India), they took the sugar cane plants with them to find new areas to grow the stuff. 

The sugar cane grew quite well on the Caribbean Islands and as a result of that they were deforested and covered with sugar cane plantations. Growing sugar meant earning money because at that time sugar was an expensive luxury item. Oh, yes that was long before you could buy a kilo of sugar at the local supermarket for under a pound. Well, for a start there were no supermarkets and a pound was a lot of money then as well but you know what I mean. Somewhere I read that a kilo of sugar at that time cost the equivalent of 100$ of today's money. That is a lot. The reason for sugar being so expensive was not because it was so rare. There were 120 sugar mills operating in England in 1750. And there was a hefty tax on it in the U.K. The price came only down in 1874 when the government abolished the sugar tax. This meant that ordinary people could afford sugar as well. So, that is enough for today but I'm sure you can read more about the history of sugar when you google it. Anyway that is where I got my information from.

When can I stop thinking about the stuff?????