A long and ancient history. The history of sugar began more than 3000 years ago. For many years, this history was dominated by cane sugar. Its rival, sugar beet, only enters our story from the 19th century onwards.
Three long centuries
The beet sugar boom only began in the 19th century. For centuries, it remained unknown. Although the French agronomist, Olivier de Serres, remarked in 1600 that the “beetroot”, recently arrived from Italy, produced a juice “similar to sugar syrup” after cooking, it was only in 1747 that the Berlin chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf proved that beet sugar and cane sugar were identical.
A slow start
A pupil of Marggraf, Franz Karl Achard produced the first beet sugar in 1798. The first plant was built in Silesia with financial support from Frederick-William III, but it was not a great success. Archard had devised a basic extraction process. His only mistake was to think that the sugar content of sugar beets increased over time, whereas the opposite is true. The result was a poor quality product and low profits.
In 1810, interest in sugar beet return in France under Chaptal, who worked on an Institut de France commission responsible for checking Achard’s experiments. The commission informed Napoleon of the benefit to France of producing its own sugar.
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In 1806, Napoleon issued a decree called the “Continental System”. Following its victory at Trafalgar, Britain was the master of the seas and global trade. This maritime domination prevented French goods from leaving and entering ports. The lack of West Indian sugar was starting to be felt.
The Napoleonic system aimed to place an embargo on British goods entering the continent, thereby ruining England and making France the leading European economic power. The blockade was a failure for France. But a stroke of good luck for sugar beet, which emerged as a replacement for sugar cane.
The role of Napoleon
Convinced of the interest of beet in the production of sugar, Napoleon encouraged farmers to grow beets and industrialists to improve processing techniques by granting them financial aid or tax exemptions. France invested heavily in extracting sugar from sugar beet. The effect of the imperial measures were quickly felt.
In 1812, Benjamin Delessert presented the Emperor with successful sugar loaves. He was the first to succeed in extracting large quantities of sugar. Napoleon was delighted, decorated him, awarded 500 production licences and ordered the planting of several thousand hectares of sugar beet. Sugar beet takes off... Factories sprang up and technical advances led to a rapid drop in the cost price of sugar.
19th century: Cane versus beet
The end of the Napoleonic Empire saw the return of sugar cane to the continent, endangering the development of sugar beet. The drop in demand did not last long, however. In 1828, France had 585 sugar processing plants in 44 départements. The government boosted production with highly beneficial tax breaks, although this was not very popular with producers in the colonies. Their protests against these tax advantages led the government to lift the exemptions in 1843. The abolition of slavery in the middle of the 19th century gave sugar beet another boost. Sugar processing plants sprang up across Europe.
20th century: continued success
In 1900, beet sugar represented 53% of world production. The 1914-18 war transformed the major beet growing fields into battlefields, ending beet production in France and Belgium and reducing its share to 26%. It rose to 40% in the 1950s, before dropping to 30% in 1995.
Whether as cane sugar or beet sugar, throughout its tumultuous three thousand year history, sugar has been a symbol of wellness and pleasure. No food can boast so much desire, creativity or so many adventures launched in its name, to turn the sweet dreams of children and adults alike into reality.