Suikerraffinaderij c. 1598

Philips Galle created this engraving called 'Suikerraffinaderij' sometime between 1570 and 1612. It depicts a 16th-century sugar refinery. Galle was a publisher in Antwerp, then a major center of the print trade, and this image gives us a window into the global economy of the time. The print reveals the labor-intensive process of sugar production, from the harvesting of cane to the refining and packaging of the final product. This was a period when sugar was becoming increasingly available to European consumers, but at what cost? The refinement of sugar was directly related to the expansion of plantation economies in the Americas. The labor was largely performed by enslaved Africans, dispossessed of their freedom and their land. While Galle’s print doesn’t show the plantations, it invites us to consider the human cost of commodity production, a legacy that continues to shape our world today.