Tropical Babylons: Sugar and the Making of the Atlantic World, 1450-1680

The idea that sugar, plantations, slavery, and capitalism were all present at the birth of the Atlantic world has long dominated scholarly thinking. In nine original essays by a multinational group of top scholars, Tropical Babylons re-evaluates this so-called “sugar revolution.” The most comprehensive comparative study to date of early Atlantic sugar economies, this collection presents a revisionist examination of the origins of society and economy in the Atlantic world.

Focusing on areas colonized by Spain and Portugal (before the emergence of the Caribbean sugar colonies of England, France, and Holland), these essays show that despite reliance on common knowledge and technology, there were considerable variations in the way sugar was produced. With studies of Iberia, Madeira and the Canary Islands, Hispaniola, Cuba, Brazil, and Barbados, this volume demonstrates the similarities and differences between the plantation colonies, questions the very idea of a sugar revolution, and shows how the specific conditions in each colony influenced the way sugar was produced and the impact of that crop on the formation of “tropical Babylons” — multiracial societies of great oppression.



Contributors:
Alejandro de la Fuente, University of Pittsburgh
Herbert Klein, Columbia University
John J. McCusker, Trinity University
Russell R. Menard, University of Minnesota
William D. Phillips Jr., University of Minnesota
Genaro Rodríguez Morel, Seville, Spain
Stuart B. Schwartz, Yale University
Eddy Stols, Leuven University, Belgium
Alberto Vieira, Centro de Estudos Atlanticos, Madeira

Stuart B. Schwartz is George Burton Adams Professor of History and Master of Ezra Stiles College at Yale University. He is author or editor of several books, including Slaves, Peasants, and Rebels: Reconsidering Brazilian Slavery.