Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T10:20:06.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sugar in Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2008

David Abulafia
David Abulafia*
Affiliation:
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, CB2 1TA, UK
*
E-mail: dsa1000@cam.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Sugar has attracted attention from economic historians, particularly because of its significance in the organisation of labour – notably the role of sugar in the development of slavery in the New World. In a Mediterranean setting, the links to slavery are less obvious, but the gradual westward transfer of sugar technology from the Levant to Sicily (under Muslim rule, and later under Aragonese rule) and to Spain reflects seismic changes in the Mediterranean economy. This was a luxury product and, as demand in western Europe grew, European merchants sought sources of supply closer to home than the eastern Mediterranean. Their reluctance to trade in the Levant reflected political uncertainties in the period when Turkish power was rising in the region. In southern Spain, Valencia (under Christian rule) and Granada (under Muslim rule) became major suppliers to northern Europe by the 15th century. Paradoxically, the survival of the last Muslim state in Spain, Granada, was made possible through the injection of capital by Italian and other merchants trading in sugar. However, the discovery of the Atlantic islands, especially Madeira, gave the Portuguese an opportunity to develop sugar production on a massive scale, again targeting Flanders and northern Europe. The article concludes with the arrival of sugar in the Caribbean, in the wake of Columbus.

Type
Articles
Information
European Review , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , May 2008 , pp. 191 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References and Notes

1. N. Deerr (1949–50) History of Sugar, 2 vols (London: Chapman and Hall) which contains a surprising number of inaccuracies despite its impressive geographical range and botanical knowledge, and deserves to be replaced; E. v. Lippmann (1929) Geschichte des Zuckers, 2nd edn (Stuttgart); also my own preliminary thoughts in D. Abulafia (1998) Zucker, -rohr, Lexikon des Mittelalters (Munich: Lexma) 19(3) cols. 679–82 and, with an emphasis on Sicily and Valencia, D. Abulafia (2000) La produzione dello zucchero nei domini della Corona d’Aragona. In: G. Rossetti and G. Vitolo (eds) Medioevo Mezzogiorno Mediterraneo: studi in onore di Mario del Treppo, 2 vols (Naples: Liguori) 2, 105–119. But all these have been surpassed by the encyclopaedic study of M. Ouerfelli (2008) Le sucre: production, commercialisation et usages dans la Méditerranée médiévale (Leiden: Brill).Google Scholar
2.Mintz, S. W. (1985) Sweetness and Power: the Place of Sugar in Modern History. (New York: Penguin Books).Google Scholar
3. F. Fernández-Armesto (1982) The Canary Islands after the Conquest (Oxford: Clarendon Press), distinguishes himself on this basis from the assumptions of C. Verlinden conveniently gathered together in: C. Verlinden (1970) The Beginnings of Modern Colonization (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press).Google Scholar
4. This is the strongly-held opinion of Ouerfelli (2008); for revisionist views of the role of slavery in the Atlantic sugar industry as well, cf. H. Klein (2004) The Atlantic slave trade to 1650. In: S. Schwartz (ed.) Tropical Babylons: Sugar and the Making of the Atlantic World, 1450–1680 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press), pp. 201–236 and J. J. McCusker and R. R. Menard (2004) The sugar industry in the seventeenth century: a new perspective on the Barbadian ‘Sugar Revolution’. In: S. Schwartz (ed.) Tropical Babylons: Sugar and the Making of the Atlantic World, 1450–1680 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press), pp. 289–330.Google Scholar
5. Cf. the debates about Sicilian sugar: C. Trasselli (1982) Storia dello Zucchero siciliano (Caltanissetta: Sciascia); H. Bresc (1986) Un monde méditerranéen: économie et société en Sicile (1300–1450), 2 vols (Rome and Palermo: École Française de Rome and Accademia di Arti Scienze e Lettere di Palermo); S. R. Epstein (1992) An Island for Itself: Economic Development and Social Change in Late Medieval Sicily (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Italian edition 1996: Potere e mercanti in Sicilia, Turin: Einaudi).Google Scholar
6. N. Deerr (1949–50) History of Sugar, 2 vols (London: Chapman and Hall), 1, pp. 68–72; W. D. Phillps Jr (2004) Sugar in Iberia. In: S. Schwartz (ed.) Tropical Babylons: Sugar and the Making of the Atlantic World, 1450–1680 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press), pp. 28–29.Google Scholar
7. A. Watson (1983) Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 26; M. Ouerfelli (2008) Le sucre: production, commercialisation et usages dans la Méditerranée médiévale (Leiden: Brill), pp. 15–30.Google Scholar
8. N. Deerr (1949–50) History of Sugar, 2 vols (London: Chapman and Hall), 1, p. 74.Google Scholar
9. A. Watson (1983) Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 28; al-Idrisi (1866) Description de l’Afrique et de l’Espagne, R. Dozy and M. J. de Goeje (eds) (Leiden), pp. 51–53, 177, 180, 187.Google Scholar
10. N. Deerr (1949–50) History of Sugar, 2 vols (London: Chapman and Hall), 1, p. 87; A. Watson (1983) Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 28; M. Ouerfelli (2008) Le sucre: production, commercialisation et usages dans la Méditerranée médiévale (Leiden: Brill), pp. 31–140.Google Scholar
11.Watson, A. (1983) Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 28–29.Google Scholar
12.Fábregas García, A. (2000) Producción y comercio de azúcar en el Mediterráneo medieval: el ejemplo del reino de Granada (Granada: Universidad de Granada), pp. 86–88.Google Scholar
13. Extract in ibn al-Awam (1979) A Moorish Calendar, transl. P. Lord (Wantage: Black Swan Press), p. 16; also cited at greater length by N. Deerr (1949–50) History of Sugar, 2 vols (London: Chapman and Hall) 1, pp. 80–81; also see A. Watson (1983) Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 29; for the operations of Italian merchants in this region, see F. Melis (1956) Málaga nel sistema economico del XIV e XV secolo, Economia e Storia, 3, 19–59, 139–163, reprinted in: F. Melis (1976) Mercaderes italianos en España (investigaciones sobre su correspondencia y su contabilidad) (Seville: Universidad de Sevilla), pp. 3–65.Google Scholar
14.Gual Camarena, M. (1976) Vocabulario del comercio medieval, 2nd edn (Barcelona: Ediciones Albir), pp. 433–434.Google Scholar
15. David Abulafia (1987) Narbonne, the lands of the Crown of Aragon and the Levant trade 1187–1400, Montpellier, la Couronne d’Aragon et les pays de Langue d’Oc (1204–1349): actes du XII oCongrès d’Histoire de la Couronne d’Aragon, Montpellier, 26–29 septembre 1985=Mémoires de la Société archéologique de Montpellier, 15, 199–200.Google Scholar
16. See generally David Abulafia (1997) in D. Agius and I. R. Netton (eds) The impact of the Orient: economic interactions between East and West in the medieval Mediterranean, Across the Mediterranean Frontiers: Trade, Politics and Religion, 650–1450 (Turnhout: Brepols), pp. 1–40.Google Scholar
17.Ashtor, E. (1981) Levantine sugar industry in the late Middle Ages: a case of technological decline. In: A. L. Udovitch (ed.) The Islamic Middle East, 700–1900 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), pp. 91–132.Google Scholar
18.Ouerfelli, M. (2008) Le sucre: production, commercialisation et usages dans la Méditerranée médiévale (Leiden: Brill), pp. 141–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19. F. B. Pegolotti (1936) La pratica della mercatura, A. Evans (ed.) (Cambridge MA: Mediaeval Academy of America).Google Scholar
20. N. Deerr (1949–50) History of Sugar, 2 vols (London: Chapman and Hall), pp. 83–86.Google Scholar
21.Bresc, H. (1972) Les jardins de Palerme, Mélanges d’Histoire et d’Archéologie de l’École française de Rome – Moyen Âge, 74, 55–127, for the later evolution of Palermo’s gardens and their agricultural importance.Google Scholar
22.Abulafia, D. (1988) Frederick II: a Medieval Emperor (London: Allen Lane), p. 336.Google Scholar
23. Text in C. Trasselli (1982) Storia dello Zucchero siciliano (Caltanissetta: Sciascia), pp. 176–179.Google Scholar
24.Ouerfelli, M. (2008) Le sucre: production, commercialisation et usages dans la Méditerranée médiévale (Leiden: Brill), pp. 503–568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25. C. Trasselli (1982) Storia dello Zucchero siciliano (Caltanissetta: Sciascia), pp. 80–81; A. Watson (1983) Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 45–46.Google Scholar
26. S. R. Epstein (1992) An Island for Itself: Economic Development and Social Change in Late Medieval Sicily (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Italian edition 1996: Potere e mercanti in Sicilia, Turin: Einaudi), pp. 210–212.Google Scholar
27.Trasselli, C. (1982) Storia dello Zucchero siciliano (Caltanissetta: Sciascia), p. 92.Google Scholar
28.Trasselli, C. (1982) Storia dello Zucchero siciliano (Caltanissetta: Sciascia), p. 139.Google Scholar
29.Marinescu, C. (1959) Les affaires commerciales en Flandres d’Alphonse V d’Aragon, roi de Naples, Revue Historique, 221, 45, doc. 4.Google Scholar
30. A. Schulte (1923) Geschichte der Großen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 3 vols (Stuttgart/Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 3, 518–521.Google Scholar
31. A. Schulte (1923) Geschichte der Großen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 3 vols (Stuttgart/Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 2, p. 172.Google Scholar
32. A. Schulte (1923) Geschichte der Großen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 3 vols (Stuttgart/Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 3, doc. 31 (iii) p. 232.Google Scholar
33. A. Schulte (1923) Geschichte der Großen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 3 vols (Stuttgart/Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 3, doc. 31 (v) p. 233; see also 2, p. 175.Google Scholar
34. See for example A. Schulte (1923) Geschichte der Großen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 3 vols (Stuttgart/Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 3, doc. 31 (vii) p. 234; for the cloth trade, and A. Schulte (1923) Geschichte der Großen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 3 vols (Stuttgart/Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 3, doc. 33, pp. 235–237. An overview of Valencian trade through the Ravensburg merchants is provided in A. Schulte (1923) Geschichte der Großen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 3 vols (Stuttgart/Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 2, pp. 181–187.Google Scholar
35.Guiral-Hadziïossif, J. (1986) Valence, port méditerranéen au XVe siècle (1410–1525) (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne), pp. 327–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
36. This person must be a member of a family of sugar makers who appear earlier in the 15th century; see G. Camarena (1976) Vocabulario del comercio medieval, 2nd edn (Barcelona: Ediciones Albir), p. 434, who refers to R. Chabás Llorens (1886–7) La cosecha de azúcar en el reino de Valencia. El Archivo (Denia) 1, pp. 43–44, 53–54, 59–61.Google Scholar
37. He is described as ‘mercader Alemany mercantilvolment resident en Valencia axi com a regent la gran companyie de micer Jous Ompis’: A. Schulte (1923) Geschichte der Großen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 3 vols (Stuttgart/Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 2, p. 173; 3, doc. 159, p. 519.Google Scholar
38. A. Schulte (1923) Geschichte der Großen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 3 vols (Stuttgart/Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 2, pp. 173, 177–178; 3, doc. 159, pp. 518–521; also printed in German in E. Schmitt and C. Verlinden (eds) (1986) Die mittelalterliche Ursprünge der europäischen Expansion: Dokumente zur Geschichte der europäischen Expansion (Munich) doc. 30, pp. 169–72.Google Scholar
39. A. Schulte (1923) Geschichte der Großen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 3 vols (Stuttgart/Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 3, doc. 159, p. 519.Google Scholar
40. A. Schulte (1923) Geschichte der Großen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 3 vols (Stuttgart/Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 3, doc. 159, p. 520.Google Scholar
41.Meyerson, M. (1991) The Muslims of Valencia in the Reign of Fernando and Isabel (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press).Google Scholar
42.Trasselli, C. (1982) Storia dello Zucchero siciliano (Caltanissetta: Sciascia), pp. 84–85.Google Scholar
43. A. Schulte (1923) Geschichte der Großen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 3 vols (Stuttgart/Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 3, doc. 159, p. 520.Google Scholar
44. A. Schulte (1923) Geschichte der Großen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 3 vols (Stuttgart/Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 3, doc. 159, pp. 520–521.Google Scholar
45. A. Schulte (1923) Geschichte der Großen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 3 vols (Stuttgart/Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 2, p. 173.Google Scholar
46. E. Schmitt and C. Verlinden (eds) (1986) Die mittelalterliche Ursprünge der europäischen Expansion: Dokumente zur Geschichte der europäischen Expansion (Munich) doc. 33, pp. 177–9.Google Scholar
47. A. Schulte (1923) Geschichte der Großen Ravensburger Handelsgesellschaft, 3 vols (Stuttgart/Berlin: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt) 3, doc. 8, p. 105.Google Scholar
48.Harvey, L. P. (1991) Islamic Spain, 1250–1500 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), pp. 70–73.Google Scholar
49.Verlinden, C. (1970) The Beginnings of Modern Colonization (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press), pp. 20, 102.Google Scholar
50.Trasselli, C. (1982) Storia dello Zucchero siciliano (Caltanissetta: Sciascia), pp. 243–244.Google Scholar
51. A. Fábregas García (2000) Producción y comercio de azúcar en el Mediterráneo medieval: el ejemplo del reino de Granada (Granada: Universidad de Granada), pp. 258–259.Google Scholar
52.Fábregas García, A. (2000) Producción y comercio de azúcar en el Mediterráneo medieval: el ejemplo del reino de Granada (Granada: Universidad de Granada), p. 260.Google Scholar
53. J. Heers (1957) Le royaume de Grenade et la politique marchande de Gênes en Occident (XVe siècle). Le Moyen Âge, 63, p. 109; A. Fábregas García (2000) Producción y comercio de azúcar en el Mediterráneo medieval: el ejemplo del reino de Granada (Granada: Universidad de Granada), p. 274.Google Scholar
54. J. Heers (1957) Le royaume de Grenade et la politique marchande de Gênes en Occident (XVe siècle). Le Moyen Âge, 63, p. 109.Google Scholar
55.Fábregas García, A. (2000) Producción y comercio de azúcar en el Mediterráneo medieval: el ejemplo del reino de Granada (Granada: Universidad de Granada), pp. 113–114.Google Scholar
56.Heers, J. (1957) Le royaume de Grenade et la politique marchande de Gênes en Occident (XVe siècle), Le Moyen Âge 63, 110–111.Google Scholar
57.Fábregas García, A. (2000) Producción y comercio de azúcar en el Mediterráneo medieval: el ejemplo del reino de Granada (Granada: Universidad de Granada), p. 263 [table].Google Scholar
58.Fábregas García, A. (2000) Producción y comercio de azúcar en el Mediterráneo medieval: el ejemplo del reino de Granada (Granada: Universidad de Granada), p. 116.Google Scholar
59.Ashtor, E. (1981) Levantine sugar industry in the late Middle Ages: a case of technological decline. In: A. L. Udovitch (ed.) The Islamic Middle East, 700-1900 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
60. For the sugar of Madeira, see V. Rau and J. de Macedo (1962) O Açúcar da Madeira nos fins do século XV (Lisbon and Funchal: Junta-Geral do Distrito Autónomo de Funchal); R. Carita (1989) Historia da Madeira (1420–1566): povoamento e produção açucareira (Funchal: Governo Regional da Madeira). See infra for the sugar plantations in southern Portugal; also C. Trasselli (1982) Storia dello Zucchero siciliano (Caltanissetta: Sciascia), pp. 250–251.Google Scholar
61.Vieira, A. (2004) Sugar islands: the sugar economy of Madeira and the Canaries, 1450–1650. In: S. Schwartz (ed.) Tropical Babylons: Sugar and the Making of the Atlantic World, 1450–1680 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press), p. 48.Google Scholar
62. On the trade of Málaga see J. Heers (1957) Le royaume de Grenade et la politique marchande de Gênes en Occident (XVe siècle). Le Moyen Âge, 63, 87–121; R. Salicru i Lluch (1995) El sultanat de Granada i la Corona d’Aragó, 1410–1458 (Barcelona: CSIC); B. Garí and R. Salicru i Lluch (1998) Las ciudades del triangulo: Granada, Málaga, Almería y el comercio mediterráneo de la Edad Media. In: D. Abulafia and B. Garí (eds) En las costas del Mediterráneo occidental: las ciudades de la Península Ibérica y del reino de Mallorca y el comercio mediterráneo en la Edad media (Barcelona: Omega), pp. 171–211; A. Fábregas García (2000) Producción y comercio de azúcar en el Mediterráneo medieval: el ejemplo del reino de Granada (Granada: Universidad de Granada).Google Scholar
63. J. Marinho dos Santos (1989) Os Açores nos sécs. XV e XVI, 2 vols (Maia and São Miguel: Universidade dos Açores) 1, pp. 301–302; R. Garfield (1992) A History of São Tomé Island, 1470–1655: the Key to Guinea (San Francisco CA: Edwin Mellen Press), pp. 62–87. .Google Scholar
64. J. W. Blake (1942) Europeans in West Africa, 2 vols (London: Hakluyt Society) 1, doc. ix, pp. 86–87.Google Scholar
65. On the anti-Jewish policies of João II and Manuel I see now F. Soyer (2007) The Persecution of the Jews and Muslims of Portugal: King Manuel I and the End of Religious Tolerance (Leiden: Brill). I am very grateful to Dr Soyer for his advice on this point.Google Scholar
66.Aznar Vallejo, E. (1981) Documentos canarios en el Registro del Sello (1476–1517) (La Laguna: Instituto de Estudios Canarios) docs. 113, 368.Google Scholar
67. F. Fernández-Armesto (1982) The Canary Islands after the Conquest (Oxford: Clarendon Press), p. 167; E. Aznar Vallejo (1983) La integración de las Islas Canarias en la Corona de Castilla (Seville: Universidad de Sevilla), pp. 260–264.Google Scholar
68. M. Ratekin (1954) The early sugar industry in Española. Hispanic American Historical Review, 34, 1–19; Rodríguez Morel (2004) The sugar economy of Española in the sixteenth century. In: S. Schwartz (ed.) Tropical Babylons: Sugar and the Making of the Atlantic World, 1450–1680 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press), p. 87.Google Scholar
69. M. Ouerfelli (2008) Le sucre: production, commercialisation et usages dans la Méditerranée médiévale (Leiden: Brill), pp. 503–658; and more generally for evidence of economic expansion see M. del Treppo (1958) I mercanti catalani e l’espansione della Corona d’Aragona (Naples: L’Arte Tipografica).Google Scholar
70. P. Iradiel (1998) Valencia y la expansión mediterránea de la Corona de Aragón. In D. Abulafia and B. Garí (eds) En las costas del Mediterráneo occidental: las ciudades de la Península Ibérica y del reino de Mallorca y el comercio mediterráneo en la Edad media (Barcelona: Omega), pp. 154–169; and the valuable essays by Verlinden, Guiral, Mainoni, Lapeyre and many others collected by A. Furió (1985) València, un mercat medieval (Valencia: Diputació Provincial).Google Scholar
71. For later developments in the Atlantic, see now S. Schwartz (ed.) (2004) Tropical Babylons: Sugar and the Making of the Atlantic World, 1450–1680 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press).Google Scholar