"Asian and New World foods were among the first items of global trade. While Europeans treated most new foods with apprehension or grew them as botanical curiosities, coffee, tea, cacao, tobacco and sugar became important plantation crops as colonies were founded and worked by slave labor to satisfy Europeans’ desires".(may require Berklee Onepass credentials).
The 17th and 18th centuries saw the rise of European colonial empires, where trade in exotic foods abetted slavery and forced labor. In Dutch Treat you'll learn about the conquests of the Dutch, British, and French, and grasp how the trade in a group of entirely superfluous luxury items changed the focus of the global economy.
In France, Global Commerce, and Colonization learn how global trade, the mercantilist system, and the slave trade disrupted traditional notions of societal hierarchy as non-nobles benefited greatly from the new economy. Additionally, global warfare--especially between France and Great Britain over colonization--left France weakened and deeply in debt.
The French Sugar Business in the eighteenth century: a quantitative study
By the middle of the eighteenth century, the sugar business was one of the largest in France and massive exports of sugar helped give France a favourable balance of trade. This article provides a quantitative overview of the French sugar trade, comparing it whenever possible to its English competitor. France clearly dominated the European sugar market. In the early 1730s, France re-exported approximately 50 percent more sugar than England.
