ABSTRACT
Caribbean island planters having approached the House of Lords with information about the trade, the merchants trading in the region countered with a brief handbill. Sugar production was a complex and labour-intensive process. Unlike traditional English crops, the growing season was more than a year, often as long as fourteen to eighteen months. The boiler’s task was to skim of the impurities that rose to the surface and ladle the liquid into progressively smaller kettles, transforming it into a thick, ropey and dark brown syrup. Two methods of curing the sugar were used after boiling. Most commonly in the English islands labourers produced muscovado, golden brown cane sugar. After the sugar had cooled from the boiling, it was packed into earthenware pots, with holes in the bottom that could be plugged and unplugged.
