Sweetness and Power

Increased English working-class consumption of sugar and other tropically sourced foods would not have been possible without sweeping economic and political changes that normalized new foods, activities, and routines in England. With the rise of the capitalist economy in England, working people learned to work harder and for longer hours in order to earn and consume more, which contributed to general changes in the eating habits of the English working class. The meanings associated with consuming these foods were “related to the will and intent of the nation’s rulers, and to the economic, social, and political destiny of the nation itself” (151). An individual’s freedom to eat what they like, including the various meanings they associate with eating, is a limited freedom constrained by options ultimately made possible by the structure of society.

The mercantilist arrangement with West Indian plantation owners ended contentiously in favor of a free-market solution that guaranteed a near-limitless supply of sucrose to British consumers. With the rise of factory capitalism in the United Kingdom in the 18th and 19th centuries, the patterns of working life, including the institution of the lunch break, changed what people ate and when.