66 sociAL sciEkrisf European household.4 And yet, in most of the poor colonies sugar was hardly ever consumed since much of the refining was in fact done in Europe. The refining of sugar was a major business which facilitated the emergence of such business houses as Tate and Lyie which continue to dominate the world sales of refined sugar. Sugar also became the focus of free-trade theorists, and the Economist in 1843 called it "This Pet of Protection" attacking those who wanted to keep sugar prices high and were thereby restricting its market.5 The belief that the artificially high price of sugar maintained through tariff restrictions was restraining the domestic market for sugar in Britain encouraged sugar manufacturers and free-trade theorists to lobby against restrictions. Thus, in 1846, under pressure from British sugar producing interests and under that of the famous free-trade advocates "The Manchester School", British tariff policy swung in favour of free-trade.6 The impact of this policy on sugar consumption within Britain was perceptible. Percapita consumption of sugar rose in Britain from less than 20 Ib. per year between 1815 and 1844 to over 34 Ib. during 1844 and to between 80 to 90 Ib. during the 1890s.7 While the increasing consumption of sugar reflected the growing affluence of Britain and of its various social classes the implications for the sugar exporting nations of this trade was far from sweet. Indeed the other side of the coin, as it were, of the sugar trade was (apart from the earlier slave trade) the increasing dependence of several sugar producing economies on the earnings from a single crop. The mono-crop nature of several African, South and Central American economies was the product of their excessive dependence on their export trade to the advanced industrial nations—the metropolitan economies. To sum up, the production of and trade in sugar as far as the Sugar Exporting Developing Economies (SEDEs) are concerned were the product of colonialism. Both production and trade were controlled by European, mainly British, capital and consumption was concentrated mainly in Europe. The sugar dependency of the SEDEs was therefore the symbol of colonialism in these economies. What is ironic about the current crisis in the international sugar economy is that it is Europe's attempts now to free itself of the 'dependency' on imported sugar that has once again pushed the SEDEs into major economic convulsions. The Structure of Production and Consumption Sugar is one of the world's most widely produced and traded commodities. While over 110 countries are listed as sugar (beet and cane) producers, as many countries are listed as net importers, while nearly 60 countries are listed as net exporters. However, not all the countries which are listed as sugar producing countries are involved in the final refining and export of crystal sugar. Many of the Caribbean countries export only raw sugar which is refined on the Continent by European multina-