ABSTRACT
The drymg up of gold production and the extinction of the Indians meant that new economic ventures had to be attempted. One of these was sugar production.' Sugar-cane cultivation was demand-led. At the beginning of the sixteenth century the d e m a n d for sugar was increasing rapidly in the European market.10 Slaves were imported from Africa to do the work and cultivation started to expand.11 By 1520, an export trade appears to have been established12 and by 1533 the value of sugar output exceeded that of gold.13
