Saint-Domingue’s plantation economy grew at explosive, compounding speed across the eighteenth century

Evidence

The number of plantations in Saint-Domingue increased with startling rapidity as well. From 1700 to 1704 they jumped from 18 to 120. In 1713 there were 138, 77 of them in the Northern Province. All of these produced raw sugar, which contained many impurities. Bigger profits were available to those who could afford technology to purify sugar on-site, removing the molasses and turning it into an edible (though still brown) sugar, which could be sold at a higher price. The number of plantations removing molasses grew; in 1730 there were 5 in the north, but by 1751 there were 182, compared with 124 that did not refine sugar. In 1790 there were 258 of the former and only 30 of the latter. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 78

Categorization

• XREF: The plantation boom and sugar-refining investment feeds directly into the narrative of why France clung so brutally to the colony, connecting to later chapters on the colonial lobby.