606 HISTORICAL CONSPECTUS 



1453. The Turk conquered Constantinople and subsequently extended his 

 empire : Cairo, 1517 ; Rhodes, 1532 ; Cyprus, 1571. The advent of 

 the Turk marks the extinction of the Levantine industry, followed by a 

 great rise in the price of sugar. 



1493. Columbus in his second voyage took the cane to Hispaniola. Canary 

 Island cane experts accompanied him . They died, but the cane flourished. 

 These islanders had come to work on the colono system, which even then 

 formed a part of sugar cane economy. 



1497. Vasco da Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope and, opening up a 

 new all-water route to India, contributed to the decline of the Venetian 

 refining trade. Da Gama observed an active sugar market at Calicut. 



1500-1600. This century is marked by the extension of the sugar industry 

 in the New World under Spanish and Portuguese influence, and by the 

 declension of that of the Mediterranean and Madeira ; that of Sicily, 

 however, languished till the seventeenth century. Hispaniola and 

 Brazil were the chief neo-tropical centres. The slave trade, which had 

 its inception in the enforced labour of Moorish prisoners of war, aided 

 in the development. The West European refining trade began, Lisbon 

 and Antwerp being the first towns to engage therein. 



1502. Moors were working in the mines in Hispaniola. 



1503. Venetians disclosed the secrets of refining. 



1506. Second introduction of the cane to the New World by Pedro de 

 Atienza, under the influence of Nicolas de Ovando, Governor of His- 

 paniola. 



1510 (circa). Either Aquilon or Miguel Ballestros were the first to make 

 sugar in the Western Hemisphere. 



1515. Gonzales de Velosa erected a horse -driven mill at Rio Nigue in His- 

 paniola, and he may be considered the founder of Western industry. 

 Old writers describe the vertical three-roller mill with co-linear centres 

 as his, but he probably only introduced the type first made by Pietro 

 Speciale in 1449. 



1520. The cane reached Mexico ; 1532, Brazil ; 1535, Peru ; 1547, Cuba ; 

 1548, Porto Rico. 



1532. Martin Alfonso de Gouza and Francisco Romeiro first planted the 

 cane in Brazil. 



1540. Antwerp exported refined sugar to England. 



1544. Two refineries were operating in England, the interested parties 

 being Cornelius Bussin, Ferdinand Points, John Gardiner, William 

 Chester and John Mounsie. London refined sugar was then inferior to 

 that of Antwerp. 



1573. A German refinery was operating at Augsberg. 



1590. Oliver de Serres observed the sweet nature of the beet. 



1600-1700. The New World industry waxed. The British, French and 

 Dutch became producers. The French refining industry started. 



1615. Sugar first made in the Japanese Empire. 



