El comercio catalán del azúcar en el siglo XIV

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to document some aspects of the sugar trade in fourteenth century Catalonia. More especially it aims to highlight the following paradox: Barcelonese traders regularly travelled to Eastern Mediterranean to fetch sugar, yet sugar cane had been introduced in the Iberian Peninsula as early as the tenth century. After presenting the main stages of sugar production until the fourteenth century, the author examines recent works on the history of sugar production in Eastern Mediterranean. He also reviews various documents on the exportation of sugar to Catalonia in the fourteenth century, mostly from the Barcelonese archives. The article ends with a table of the different kinds of sugar produced and exported during the period under review.