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Both Mintz and the authors of The Atlantic World make the claim that the slave trade started primarily because of the necessity of labor in regards to sugar in the New World. While both readings discuss sugar and agree on the primary point, they deal with different aspects of the claim. Continuing from the previous chapter, The Atlantic World primarily discusses the population and economic aspects in the New World. Like the use of indentured servants, the need for cheap labor drove mass migration into the New World. The authors here point out that in one colony alone, Brazil, 4 to 5 million African slaves were affected by a forced migration to the New World (The Atlantic World 203). It is here that the authors argue that this change in population and demographics significantly altered the course of the New World. The authors also point out the economic necessity and benefit of the slaves, where a slave ship could alone account for $250,000 in human cargo (The Atlantic World 202). The economic benefits from slavery furthered the slave trade and allowed for the growth and expansion of European powers.
Mintz, on the other hand, specifically discusses the effects that sugar had on the Old World. Here, he argues that sugar was a driving force behind the changing economic and political power in Europe. In earlier recorded European texts, sugar was a very valuable and expensive commodity (Mintz 159). The rich used sugar to show their wealth and power, and it was not seen as a necessity or anything of particular use. However, Mintz points out that as sugar became more effectively farmed in New World plantations, its use changed as did its cost (Mintz 167). Soon sugar was introduced to many less wealthy Europeans who previously did not have access to it; many governments, such as the United Kingdom began to tax the consumption of sugar, which invariably changed the economy (Mintz 175). The additional power and economic benefit that came from sugar, Mintz argues, inevitably helped the expansion of the British Empire.
Both authors argue that the slave trade significantly altered both the New World and the Old World, and significantly changed the economic and political landscape of both regions. My colleague Derek Taylor brings up an interesting question in regards to whether slavery was dependent on sugar or sugar was dependent on slavery. Here he argues that sugar was the necessity and slavery was the means, and I partially agree. Using both of these sources, I believe that it is clear that at first sugar was dependent on slavery, but as time went on, slavery became dependent on sugar too. This mutual dependence was what caused a significant change in the economic and political landscape.