{"product_id":"the-sugar-barons-matthew-parker-9780091925833","title":"The Sugar Barons","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe beautiful West Indies are sold to us as unspoilt paradise islands. Nothing could be further from the truth. There can be few places in the world with a more turbulent, dramatic and shocking history. ost of the Caribbean islands seem tiny specks in the sea, but their size belies their enormous historical importance. In the eighteenth century they were the most valuable and fiercely-defended colonies in the British Empire. The wealth that flowed from them to England put the capital into capitalism and underwrote the Industrial Revolution. he Sugar Barons focuses on key moments in the story of the first British Empire s rise and fall- the sugar revolution in Barbados which made the English a nation of voracious consumers and transformed the island from a backward outpost into the richest English colony in the world, powered by tens of thousands of enslaved Africans; the change to state-driven imperialism with Cromwell s disastrous Western Design and the bitter wars against the French; the zenith of Jamaican opulence, and the island s subsequent calamitous decline; and the growing revulsion against slavery that led to Emancipation. t the heart of the book, however, are the\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Matthew Parker","offers":[{"title":"Very Good","offer_id":46331215380723,"sku":"8880002514178","price":29.5,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0634\/4284\/5939\/files\/9780091925833.jpg?v=1729283183","url":"https:\/\/www.harryhartog.com.au\/products\/the-sugar-barons-matthew-parker-9780091925833","provider":"Harry Hartog Bookseller","version":"1.0","type":"link"}