SW10: Psychovant Teaches American History #13: Sugar, Tar, and Fish

[Scott Eiler]

Psychovant the Duck here, with your weekly lesson...  What all came from 
the New World?  Other than precious metals and (heh) beaver fur, sugar 
was the big thing.  The mainland didn't figure in that; the Caribbean 
islands did.  Europe had basically no sugar before that.  That means 
(among other things) no cake.  Royalty came to love cake.  French 
royalty was infamous for that... 
https://www.bl.uk/west-india-regiment/articles/an-introduction-to-the-caribbean-empire-and-slavery

   -  When England beat France, it's rumored they let France choose to 
keep *either* Canada or Guadaloupe, one little sugar island.  France 
kept Guadaloupe! 
http://www.city-data.com/forum/canada/2030017-why-did-french-trade-canada-guadeloupe.html 


   -  British Royal Navy loved pine trees and tar from North Carolina. 
And tobacco from Virginia was what got England into mainland colonizing 
in the first place.  Cotton didn't get big until industrialization. 
https://www.cotton.org/pubs/cottoncounts/story/index.cfm

   -  Britain and France both loved fish.  Parts of Spain did too.  So 
they were all interested in the waters around Newfoundland.  France 
still owns a small island there! 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_fishing#Cod_trade

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---- Psychovant the Duck, hacking http://www.eilertech.com/ ----