An essay on the sugar trade.

The Sugar trade.

 Oh the wonderful sweetness of money and sugar. What drove this so called sugar trade, you ask? Consumer demand, return on investment, and slavery were all very important aspects to the making of the historic events in which were the sugar trade. Consumer demand is the product of the addicting compounds which make up sugar, adding it to about everything sugar gradually became a very important aspect in the 1500's normal lifestyle. Return on investment is when you put money into something and get a profit or get your money black plus some, thus making a business out of something. Slavery was a huge part of the sugar trade, they are what made the sugar trade possible, they worked and worked constantly to provide enough sugar for family's in the New World.

 Consumer demand is one of many parts of the sugar trade but crucial to the survival and thriving love of the product. Sugar consumption approached nearly 10% of overall food expenditures for family's in the 1700s. After 1660 sugar imports always exceeded over all colonial products, that means that they had and wanted more sugar than any other product that was being shipped in from foreign countries. The sugar was shipped in something called a Hogshead, it was a big barrel weighing between 700 and 1200lbs, children loved to lick the remaining sugar left in the barrel after it has been emptied. People love the way sugar tastes, we have for longer than the 1500's, as a matter of fact sugar was cultivated and grown in New Guinea some 9000 years ago. The more slaves there was the more sugar was produced.

 Slavery is what dramatically helped the sugar trade happen and proceed for so many years before slavery became illegal and machines replaced their jobs. Slaves could be traded for many goods like powder, bullets, brass pans, tobacco pipes, and many other things. At 14 pence a day a laborer in England in the early 1700's earned about 18 British pounds a year. For instance the Hibbert family owned 1,618 slaves in 1833, that year they made 31,120 pounds. In modern day english money that's about $48523, back then that was worth a lot more than it sounds. Family's who could afford to buy slaves to start a sugar industry always made a profit and thrived at what they did. Even if you weren't in the sugar trade it's self you could buy and sell trades to people who were in the business and still make huge profits. The cost of slaves went up through the years of 1748-1768.

 Return on Investment, money in slave trade in British Caribbean doubles their money in the sugar trade. Bought slaves for 14 pounds and sold for around 32 pounds, they typically made a good profit depending on where they bought the slave and where they sold the slave. Gives England a trad position. Owned trading system, bought for cheap sold expensively. This system was called a Mercantile system or Mercantilism. This is how the system worked, the English would buy raw items for cheap and refined or made them into finished goods, in this case they would buy sugar cane and refine it until it was white refined sugar, this series of laws began in about 1660 the Parliament in England approved a entire series of new laws taking care of colonial shipping.

 In conclusion that is what drove the sugar trade, the financial advantages of making money influenced many family's mainly consisting of the rich to enter into the sugar industry and most if not all did very well with their business. Slavery is another huge part of the sugar trade, without them it might not have happened, people might not have made as much money either. Consumer demand, however, is obviously the most important part of what drove the sugar trade. Peoples addicting affection for the sweetening substance got greater with the increase in population and slaves. Sugar is still a huge part of our daily lives, It's branched out to many different countries now, We've enjoyed sugar even as far back as 9000 years ago and still continue to love it today. The sugar trade was an important p

Oh goodness I don't know what to write.

I suppose I'll write about my cats, Izzy and Simon. They have a lot of crazy character, those two. Both extremely well fed and loved, my family is a cat loving one. I've had cats for as long as I can remember. We had Aja and Cola when I was a wee lexi up until I was in about 4th grade, they were 20-21 then they passed away of old age. They were wonderful cats, I'd like to think that Aja favored me most of the family. He always cuddled up with me when I was a baby and fell asleep with me. To give you a better description of these cats I'll tell you what they looked like. Aja, was a short haired grey cat. Cola, was black with a white beard and feet. Both about the same height, they grew up together. When my mom was dating this guy Phil (forever ago) they went behind a store in which I forgot the name of but heard meowing, so of course you'd like to see where it was coming from. They found cola in a trash, probably only a few days or weeks old. Just a black poof ball sadly howling for some company. My mom couldn't resist, she brought her home. Aja however had been coming up to my moms apartment repetitively and they'd just pet him and play with him and then he'd go but come back yet again the next day. One of these days the kitty seemed a little.. off. Aja drooped his head, my mom thought he was dying, he looked tired, weak, and hungry. She took him in and decided she had to keep him. Two cats in two weeks. She brought him back to Phils house where she let Aja run and meet Cola. From what my mom tells me Cola was not too fond of this new roommate. She chased him around for about an hour. Imagine this little black ball of fur hauling butt towards this little grey cat. Such a funny thing to think about, because I imagine her as literally a black ball of fur with legs. Now the story about another cat in which I had not sold you about earlier in this blog, his name was fathead. I'm sure you can guess why we named him such a name. His head was double the size of his body! I could grab his cheeks, you can't do that with normal cats! Well all the cats we've had have been strays, we don't look for them they're just miracles and found the right home(:. Fathead was no different, he came to our house and we tried not to feed him too often or else he'd come more and more and eventually we'd keep him but we didn't want that after the recent death of our other cats cola and aja, but we made him a hobo refugee consisting of a box and a towel. Fathead loved being in there when it was cold outside, he eventually made his way into our house one evening. We gradually let him in more and more, we loved him more every day we saw him. We realized this was no ordinary cat, he had so much character, and he didn't meow... He grunted. Little series of 2-3 grunts when he was happy and long deep grunts when he was mad or upset. His body eventually began to fit the size of his ginormous head. Fathead was a social cat and would just lay contently in one spot when company filled the house. Fathead died the day after thanksgiving I believe about 2 years ago. We didn't have him long, but we made his years with us as amazing and great as a cat could ever want or have. We spoil them.  I miss his cute little white paws and his white beard similar to colas everyday. I miss all my cats that are no longer here. Well to get into a happier less emotional subject here is the story about the cats I have now, Izzy and Simon. Last late autumn - early winter A pure black cat wondered around in our backyard, with two lovely kittys. One I named hiccup, the other was temporarily named angel (formerly known as Izzy who is far from an angel). We fed the strays hoping they'd be alright for the winter that was coming, they seemed like a good family, izzy was a hopper. She followed her mom wherever she went and hopped throughout the dead grass and fallen leaves. Hiccup I think was sick, she didn't go many places. But one day I went out to see if I could find the kitties, I saw hiccup in an old dog house the owners before us had put there for their huge dog. The kitten was lying on a little pillow I had put out hoping the cats would find it. She was afraid, I came up to hear quietly and gently, with hopes that she wouldn't run. She stayed where she was. I pet her only a few times on the very top of her pitch black head, she looked just like her mother. She was shaking, I could only imagine how scary it was for her so I left. My mom a day or two later told me she had gone to check on the kitties only to find that hiccup had passed away.. I don't know why but I really felt close to that cat, I was the first person she ever let pet her, I still think that it's almost my fault she died, I could've done something.. ugh. Happy thoughts lexi happy thoughts, back to Izzy. We caught her because winter was coming and we wasn't sure if she'd survive she was a pissy young one. She growled and spit everywhere, I don't blame her. She had been taken from the only world she knew and put into a cage, I felt horrible, she was with her mother all the time and now she isn't. I could barely live with myself the next few days, her white and black speckled fur twitched whenever she was mad. You could hold her with one hand she was so small. Shes grown up quiet a bit and is one of those cats that I swear is made of jello. I can stretch her like 2 feet long. Simon has basically the same story as all the other cats, he was a stray (or so we think) and we couldn't not have such a beautiful cat. Simon has kankles, yes, kankles. If you don't know what these are it's when you can't tell where the ankle begins and the legs ends. He's chubby but is mostly fur he's probably one of the prettiest cats I've ever seen. The picture below is a picture of Simon and Izzy. They're both pretty mean sometimes but have their sweet moments.
Simon to the left and Izzy to the right.