Role of Sucrose in Development of British Power

In his landmark book Sweetness and Power, Sidney Mintz highlights the important role that sugar, or sucrose, played in the development of British power. Mintz is fundamentally concerned with the synergistic relationship between production and consumption of commodities. In his book, he explores the synergy between the consumption of sugar in England and its production in the colonies founded by the British Empire. His main argument is basically that man's sweet tooth is not the explanation for the importance of sugar to the British diet. Instead, Mintz believes that the industrial revolution and the expansion of the British Empire fostered consumption of sugar in England by making the commodity plentiful, reducing its price, and inserting it into various different types of foodstuffs.

Mintz points out that sugar was first discovered by Europeans as early as the year 1000 AD. However, it took centuries for the luxury good to permeate the social strata within Europe. By 1650, sugar was firmly established within the upper classes and nobility of British society. Only a century and a half later, in 1800, sugar had become rare and pricey necessity in the diet of every British person. By 1900, sugar accounted for nearly twenty percent of the calories in the average British person's daily diet (Mintz, 5-6). Indeed, Calorie-rich sugar became a substitute food that was used to fill the caloric insufficiency of the typical English worker's diet. Sugar became the staple foo

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