Recommended reading by Calabash Monk
One flower, one world, one leaf, one Bodhi.
Sugar is a very common and ordinary condiment in our daily lives. What does it have to do with seemingly unrelated powers?
The book "Sugar and Power" tells you an extraordinary history about sugar through a small lens.
Recommended readers: Calabash Monk, life is like an adverse journey, and I am also a traveler.
For foodies who like sweets, come and refresh your worldview
- Quickly understand the complex world behind sweetness in 10 minutes
This article has been authorized to be reprinted from Shulaquan (ID: shulaquan)
Shulaquan - Reliable people recommend reliable books
Sugar and the sweetness of sugar mean a lot in the world of foodies There is a constant sense of happiness, but when sugar and sweetness enter the anthropological field of vision, the situation seems to have changed greatly - what is behind sweetness and sweet satisfaction? It is a complex civilization, politics, economy, history...
"Sweetness and Power"
The complex world behind sweetness
Author: [English] Spanish Minsi
Publisher: The Commercial Press
Subtitle: The Place of Sugar in Modern History
Original title: Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History
Translator: Zhu Jiangang, Wang Chao
Publication date: May 2010
ISBN: [1********** ]26
Book Summary
"Sweetness and Power" teases out the wonderful and unusual history behind sugar, an ordinary thing.
In the process of transforming from luxury goods to industrially produced commodities, sugar was closely linked to the primitive accumulation of early capitalism, slave production, and even the political and economic relations between countries.
This work is suitable for readers who are interested in anthropology and curious, and like to get to the bottom of things. In a sense, it may also change the world view of foodies.
British girl drinking tea
Editor opens the book
1 Sugar as a material object
Sweetness is widely favored by humans. Perceived and used by people in its wide and diverse ways.
In the history of sweetness, the consumption of sucrose and honey is the most significant; but in the history of sweetness consumption, the status and demand of sucrose have completely surpassed honey, occupying the central position of sweetness. .
Sugar Production
The various periods of the rise of sucrose are closely related to the changes in human civilization.
1. Mediterranean Period: The Arabs expanded to the west in the 8th century and introduced the sweetness of sugar cane, sugar cane planting technology, and sugar making technology to the Mediterranean region; while the European Crusades allowed Western Europeans to truly understand sucrose. The Mediterranean coast has been supplying sugar to North Africa, the Middle East and continental Europe.
2. Atlantic Period: At the end of the 15th century, the sugar industry in the Atlantic islands rose and the sugar industry in the Mediterranean declined. During this period, the Spanish and Portuguese developed the sugar industry in their Atlantic states. In Europe, sucrose is still a luxury product with the same value as medicines and spices.
3. New World Period: After Columbus discovered the New World, sucrose was introduced to the Americas in the 16th century. With its victory in naval battles in the 17th century, Britain established a plantation system in the Americas and almost monopolized the production and consumption of cane sugar. With the development of early plantations and late capitalist industrial civilization, sugar gradually became an indispensable daily necessity for British and even Europeans from a luxury product.
Columbus landed in the New World
Sugar and Britain
During the New World period and after, sucrose was gradually incorporated into the habits of the British nation and became part of the national character.
1. The history of sugar is fraught with economic and political implications. The founding of colonies, the capture of slaves, the amassing of capital, the protection of shipping, and ultimately the consumption process were all integrated into the workings of the British state apparatus and protected.
2. The history of sugar development and British mercantilism is closely tied to the free market ethos that followed. The process of sugar turning from a luxury product to a daily consumer product meant a change in the British class, that is, the plantation class turned from prosperity to decline, and the industrial bourgeoisie replaced the former and quickly moved to the center of power.
Sugar consumption
Sucrose can be mainly used as medicines, spices, decorations, sweeteners and preservatives, but their uses are often difficult to separate.
1. Spices and condiments: Using sucrose in cooking can change the flavor of food. As a spice, sucrose could only be consumed by the privileged class due to its high price. This use reached its peak in the 16th century and then declined.
2. Decorations: Highly pure sucrose can be mixed with other liquids or solid foods to produce a paste that can be used for sculptures and preservation, so sucrose has become an extremely important decoration. Due to the high price, this decoration was only the patent of kings, nobles and knights before the 16th century. After the 16th century, merchants also joined the ranks.
3. Drugs: Sucrose has established its use as a drug due to the special physiological reactions it can bring about (increased breathing, accelerated heartbeat, skin color changes), and can treat tinnitus, diarrhea, edema, cough, malaria and even depression. From the 13th to the 18th century, sucrose was always indispensable in European medical practice.
4. Sweetener: Sucrose was used as a sweetener in the 18th and 19th centuries, related to the rise of tea, coffee, and chocolate—these three drinks are bitter, and it became a British habit to add sucrose to obtain sweetness. Tea and sugar gained a firm place in the daily diet of the working class due to their progressively lower prices.
5. Preservatives: The production of preserves and jams rose in the 19th century. The success of the free trade movement in the mid-19th century led to a drop in sugar prices, and preserves and jams became an important part of public dietary consumption.
New World Plantations
2 Politics and Life Behind Sugar
It is by no means accidental that the history of sugar develops according to a specific trajectory, and its meaning is by no means simple. , contains complex thoughts of political power behind it, and is closely connected with human beings' gradually changing lifestyles.
The significance of sugar
Sugar is closely related to social differences among various classes, the wishes of country rulers, and the economic, social and political destiny of the country.
1. The complex changes in diet and consumption patterns in Europe from the 18th to the 19th centuries represented by sucrose signify the formation of a world economy, which implies the asymmetric relationship between the metropolitan country and the colonies, and also reflects the huge production of modern capitalism. mechanism and distribution mechanism.
2. In Europe, sugar has changed from a luxury product to a daily necessities and has become commonplace, reflecting the changes in the groups that hold social power.
Sugar as a way of life
Sugar means Westernization and modernization of life. It carries the popular symbol of avant-garde and progress, and has been accompanied by European force and capitalist economy from Europe to the present. Advance into the lives of North American, African, and Pacific Islander peoples.
1. Sucrose came to be associated with fat, a connotation that had nutritional, psychological, and experiential implications.
It means people are increasingly eating outside the home and there is an increased demand for prepared foods such as frozen beef. Implicit here is a dialectical relationship between individual freedom and social model constraints, that is, industrialized food consumption means that people give up a large number of free choices, while the food industry boasts that it has increased the freedom of choice.
2. Sucrose represents a huge and fundamental change in modern life. Whether it is time, work or leisure, it has fallen into the mode of industrialization and fast food, and this change is inescapable for modern people.
Conclusion
Behind sugar is not always the pure sweetness of happiness. It is mixed with the profound social history and changes in human life. Sugar not only means the satisfaction of enjoying desserts, it has long become an inseparable part of our modern lifestyle.
51 Reading Click to open the mini program to help you find good books faster
Mini program
↓If you have any questions, please check the "Growth Dictionary"