Making sugar

Making sugar © National Maritime Museum, London

Description: European consumption of sugar increased enormously during the 17th and 18th centuries, fuelling the demand for enslaved African labour to work the plantations of the Caribbean. Sugar was not produced as granules or in cubes but rather as large cones. Sugar was then broken off in lumps for domestic use. Sugar refineries were established in major British ports like London, Bristol and Liverpool.

Credit line: National Maritime Museum, London