- Title: Commodities: Leaving Home For Sugar
- Date: 21st July 1986
- Summary: SINCE 1600 EUROPEANS HAVE BECOME INCREASINGLY ADDICTED TO SUGAR. SUGAR'S IN MOST OF THE FOOD WE BUY, & IS THE SOURCE FOR UP TO A QUARTER OF OUR CALORIES. WITH THE DECLINE OF THE BRAZILIAN SUGAR-CANE INDUSTRY FOLLOWING THE DUTCH WITHDRAWAL IN 1654, THE CARIBBEAN, HITHERTO THE HAVEN FOR THE FRENCH, BRITISH & DUTCH PIR- ATES, BECAME THE CENTRE OF WORLD SUGAR PRODUCTION.WITH AN EVER DECREASING DEMAND FOR SUGAR IN EUROPE, & WITH UP TO 15 MILLION CHEAP SLAVES TRANSPORTED FROM AFRICA, THE W. INDIAN SUGAR INDUSTRY WAS FOR 200 YEARS 1 OF THE MOST PROFITABLE ENTERPRISES OF ALL TIME. IN ZIMBABWE THERE WERE 2 SUGAR HISTORIES: THE COMPANIES STORY, THAT THEY TURNED SEMI-DESERT INTO MODEL PLANTATIONS, GREEN AS A BILLIARD TABLE, EFFICIENT AS CLOCKWORK; & THE STORY TOLD BY PEOPLE WHO WERE DISPOSSESSED, OR WHO WERE BROUGHT IN AS FORCED LABOUR, LEAVING DEPENDENTS IN THE UNIRRIGATED COMMUNAL AREAS.
- Description:SIX PROGRAMMES ABOUT THE HISTORY OF COMMODITIES.
- Collection: Channel 4
- Genre:Documentary and Factual
- Producer:FIREFRET
- Programme Episode:2
- Transmission Date:21/07/1986
- Decade: 1980s