chapter 3
Sugar, Slaves, and Souls
T
hroughout the Middle Ages, western Europeans had
bought sugar from the lands of the eastern Mediterranean.
Added to purchases of other luxuries from Byzantium and spices from
the Indian Ocean islands, sugar put a heavy burden on their economies.
Europeans had little to offer in exchange for it except gold, and by the end
of the eleventh century they had used up nearly all the gold they had. So,
beginning early in the thirteenth century, Europeans set about trying to find
a cheaper way to satisfy their sweet tooth. Every step they could bring pro-
duction closer to the markets would cut costs. So, first on the island of
Cyprus, then on Crete, and next on Sicily, they invested in projects to grow
sugarcane and refine sugar. By 1404, they had reached Portugal. Sugar was
still an expensive luxury beyond the reach of any but the rich. Even Queen
Isabella of Spain treated it as a special Christmas gift for the royal children.
If sugar was to become a popular condiment, cheaper means of production
had to be found.
Meanwhile, the Europeans were also trying to find new supplies of
gold. Africa was thought to be the most promising source, but no one in
Europe knew exactly where in Africa gold came from. Europeans knew
only that gold arrived by camel caravan at Moroccan ports, where it was
exchanged for cloth, timber, and glass beads, and that it arrived in sufficient
quantities to enable the Florentines, in 1254, to produce the first gold coin
minted in centuries. Rumors of mines or gold-bearing rivers far in the inte-
rior of the vast Sahara spurred Italian explorers to try to find them. Many
died or were murdered on the way, but at least one Florentine merchant
had reached Timbuktu by 1470. The quest for fabled cities would ever lure
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