The purpose of Christopher Columbus sailing West was to find a faster route to Asia so that they may get ahead in the spice trade. A few decades later, Megellan took a voyage that proved that the land Columbus had landed on was not Asia, but an entirely New World. This is good news and bad news for these voyagers because for one they discovered new land which is great but this new land was not abundant in spices like how Asia is.
Although this New World did not have spices, it had something similar that would change the economy for the better. Sugar began being produced by the masses in Brazil which would give the colonies a very large role in the world economy. Sugar began to replace honey in many recipes around the world and also became more popular in jams and jellies. Due to the new use for refined sugar, demand for sugar went up overall.
In 1550, the Portuguese built mills near Pernambuco and Sao Vicente along the Atlantic Coast. The Portuguese used techniques derived from Madeira which consists of Sharecropping. Sharecropping is when there is one landlord who leases portions of their land to smaller planters who give the landlord a portion of their harvest.
The growth of the sugar cane industry continued to grow rapidly throughout the colonial times as slaves worked hard in the fields to produce the product. Slaves end up only having a few days rest every three to four weeks then their back to work (Ewbank). The Dutch ended up taking over in Pernambuco and they used slaves to continue the production of sugar.
Ewbank, Thomas. “Cruelty to Slaves.” The Brazil Reader, 2019, doi:10.1215/9780822371793-052.
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