this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
892 points (97.0% liked)

4chan

4258 readers
38 users here now

Greentexts, memes, everything 4chan.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 17 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Damn, that's a lot of sugar. Everything else seems to be sold in "reasonable" amounts, why is the sugar so out of proportion?

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 19 points 10 months ago

Poundful of sugar helps the medicine go down

[–] Filthmontane@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm assuming that's the wholesale price. I can't imagine a single family buying 10 lbs at a time.

[–] NielsBohron@lemmy.world 23 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I can, given that most families did a hell of a lot more baking/cooking themselves instead of going to restaurants, buying processed food, etc.

Edit: plus, I forgot about making their own preserves and canning food, both of which require a fair bit of sugar, too.

[–] oce@jlai.lu 6 points 10 months ago

Preserving fruits for winter was what came to my mind.

[–] Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Explains all the sugarcane farms

[–] NielsBohron@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Well, lots of demand for an extended period of time (ie centuries), plus a crop that grew well in areas that didn't take to traditional cash crops, and sugar was relatively easy to process into a form that shipped well even back in the Age of Sail (molasses and rum).

Frankly, there are a lot of reasons that sugar cane was a popular crop.