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It comes to no surprise that the Europeans always found ways to battle for supremacy. The battles range from goods that can be used to territories so nations can build their spheres of influence to new and unknown lands. In this article, the battles of supremacy continue with trade routes specialized in sugar. The Sugar Route according to Alberto Vieira “played an essential role in the transfer of sugar from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean” (Vieira 42). In order for these islands to become successful for the nations that played their parts in it, they had to depend on slaves and how each of them would participate in the trade market.
Slaves were important for the success of the established Sugar Route. As stated by Erin Wroe, slaves were necessary due to the lack of local individuals that were already living in the Sugar Route (Vieira 57). However, slaves were not always needed and they acted like “assistants” when a free man was in charge. In addition, the article mentions that slaves were not the primary source (group) that contributed the most work to the success of the route as stated in the example on Madeira. The labor force used in Madeira mills “[were] mixed, made up of slaves, freed [slaves; considered a “Free Man”], and free persons (individuals that were already free before working in the mills)” (Vieira 61).
Nations that wanted to participate in the Sugar Route had to deal with the problems that the trade route presented. One of the trade route problems came from policies that were established based on xenophobia. Dom Manuel of Portugal had to “recognize the negative effects” of the restrictions that his government placed upon foreigners on selling their goods for only a few months during the year (Vieira 65). He removed those policies once he realized that they were doing more damage to the economy of his nation than good. Trade in the Sugar Route proved to be good because they were able to stimulate not only the nation of Portugal stated in this example of bad policy, but also other European nations that also participated like Italy, French, and many others (Vieira 65).