L'industrie sucrière, le moulin à sucre et les relations sino-portugaises aux XVIe-XVIIIe siècles - article ; n°4 ; vol.49, pg 817-861

Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales - Année 1994 - Volume 49 - Numéro 4 - Pages 817-861
The Sugar Industry, the Sugarcane Roller Mill and Sino-Portuguese Relations from the xvith to xvnith Centuries. SABBAN. Many questions have been raised with respect to the origins of the rolling mill, type of sugarcane mill which by replacing the ancient technology of the edge runner and the beam presses in the xvnth century helped to speed up the process by which sugar cane is crushed and thus to favor the boom in the world sugar industry. This paper reexamines this question since it has come to light in the past few years that the promo ters of this invention could be, in fact, the Chinese. A detailed comparison between the Chinese mill and the Brazilian mill shows, on the one hand, that the two machines are quite distinct and suggests, on the other hand, that problems with regard to technological innovation cannot be treated without taking into account the specific social context of each society. Thus for example in China, sugar, which has been produced long before it had in Europe, was not valued on the same basis as in Europe. Furthermore in China white sugar was not so much appreciated until the xvith cen- tury. The evolution of its status seems linked to the pressures of the international market, after China had come into contact with her Asian neighbors via the Portuguese. At the end of the xvith century, the Chinese sugar provinces of Guangdong and Fujian are going to produce very white sugar specially for exportation and if the clientele is rapidly satisfied it is because the Chinese possess technique for sugar whi tening claying which the Portuguese will only introduce into the West later on. Between the xvith and xvnth century the Chinese sugar activity will experience an unprecedented development, but will rapidly lose energy, without resulting in more advanced stage of industrialisation. Traditional networks of production of artisanal and unrefined sugar meanwhile will continue to function.
45 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.