THE SUGAR CANE. 93 



them considerabl}'. Jlere, then, the art of refining sugar 

 was apparantly discovered, and the word ''Kand'' intro- 

 duced to describe the refined sugar. 



The Arabs brought the Sugar Cane to Spain in the 

 eighth century, and to Sicily in the ninth. Confectioners 

 existed in A^enice as earl\' as 1130. The three most 

 important Sugar-producing countries in the Middle Ages 

 were Syria, Eg\pt and C\ prus. But their importance 

 vanished in 1498 when \'asco de Gama discovered the 

 direct route to India round the Cape of Good Hope, and 

 the trade in Indian sugar consequentl\' fell to the Portugese. 

 This completeU' broke the political and commercial supre- 

 macy of Venice and her power vanished for ever. The 

 Atlantic Ocean instead of the Mediterranean Sea. now 

 became the route for the commerce of the world. In 1580 

 the production of sugar began to dedline in Sicih" as she 

 could no longer hold her own against the competition from 

 over the sea. For about this time American sugar, parti- 

 cularh' the Brazilian, was coming into use all over the 

 world and had reached Palermo. The consumption of 

 sugar increased enormoush* in Europe, and, according to 

 Lippmann, in the year 1600 even German\' had several 

 sugar refineries. But after the Thirt}- Years' War only 

 those in Hamburg seem to have remained. Under Frederic 

 the Great numerous sugar refineries were established in 

 Prussia and were fostered b}' protective duties. 



In 17-1:7 the Chemist Markgraf succeeded in extrac- 

 ting sugar from beetroots. But the manufacture of this 

 product did not extend, chiefh' because tlie supph* of 

 saccharine beets was limited. Achard was the first to 



4* 



