The probable origin of sugar cane dates back to the year 6000 BC in regions near India. However, in ancient times, sugar was nothing more than an exotic spice, used only for seasoning or as a medication. Foods were sweetened using bee honey.
Sugar arrived in Europe in the mid 12th Century and important producer regions arose in the following Centuries, especially in the Far East. The interest in the spice kept growing after the 15th Century when new beverages, such as coffee, tea and chocolate sweetened with sugar conquered the European taste buds. In 1493, Christopher Columbus began sugar cane cultivation in the Antilles, and after that, the history of sugar in world took on new dimensions.
The word sugar comes from the Sanskrit term, sarkara. All of the versions of the word in the Indo-European languages stem from it: sukkar in Arabic, saccharum in Latin, zucchero in Italian, seker in Turkish, zucker in German, sugar In English.
Its History in Brazil
There are records about sugar cane crops in Brazil since 1521. However, the setting up of a sugar mill in the Colony would only occur in 1533, with Martim Afonso de Souza. The donee of the Province of São Vicente brought seeds from Madeira Island, one of the largest producers at the time, and he set up the Governor's Mill on his lands. Years later, the property was acquired by the Belgian Jorge Erasmo Schetz, who renamed it the Saint Jorge dos Erasmos Mill, considered the first in Brazil.
In 1550, Pernambuco became the world's largest producer of sugar, and in 1579, of the approximately 60 mills that existed along the Brazilian coast, 41 were between Pernambuco and Bahia. Sugar was the staple of the colonial economy and between the 16th and 19th Centuries, its production and commercialization yielded twice as much as gold and five times more than all other agricultural products together.
