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The history of sugar in Madeira Island has left evident vestiges on the Madeiran society.
Since very early Europe nicknamed their islands according to the products they offered. Sugar was the epithet for Madeira Island and to some of the Canary Islands, where this crop was the magic wand that changed the economy and way of living of the people.
Sugar was basically a complement of the economical life of the island. With the money coming from the sugar trade churches (being the Sé Cathedral a fine example) and ample palaces were built. |
These palaces and churches were abundantly filled with imported masterpieces, testimonies presented today in the Sacred Art Museum, which were often traded in for sugar. The saccharine industry on the island faced a huge impetus in the 15th and 16th centuries, when the sugar from Madeira flooded the major European markets. In ancient times the sugar cane was squeezed in manual presses or in rudimentary sugar-mills.
The exports of sugar from Brazil and the Spanish colonies of America were the major cause for the decay of the saccharine industry in Madeira.
In 1736 the island already began importing this product from abroad, as island based production could no longer cover the local demand. |
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