The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex Essays in Atlantic History [Paperback]

A new edition of Philip Curtin's classic work on the history of the plantations.Over a period of several centuries, Europeans developed an intricate system of plantation agriculture overseas which was quite different from the agricultural system used at home. Though the plantation complex centered on the American tropics, its influence was much wider. Much more than an economic order for the Americas, the plantation complex had an important place in world history. These essays concentrate on the intercontinental impact.Over a period of several centuries, Europeans developed an intricate system of plantation agriculture overseas which was quite different from the agricultural system used at home. Though the plantation complex centered on the American tropics, its influence was much wider. Much more than an economic order for the Americas, the plantation complex had an important place in world history. These essays concentrate on the intercontinental impact.Over a period of several centuries, Europeans developed an intricate system of plantation agriculture overseas that was quite different from the agricultural system used at home. Though the plantation complex centered on the American tropics, its influence was much wider. Much more than an economic order for the Americas, the plantation complex had an important place in world history. These essays concentrate on the intercontinental impact.Preface; Part I. Beginnings: 1. The Mediterranean origins; 2. Sugar planting: from Cyprus to the Atlantic islands; 3. Africa and the slave trade; 4. Capitalism, feudalism, and sugar planting in Brazil; 5. Bureaucrats and freelances in Spanish America; Part II. Seventeenth-Century Transition: 6. The sugar revolution and the settlement of the Caribbean; 7. Anarchy and imperial control; 8. Slave societies on the periphery; Part III. Apogee and Revolution: 9. The slave trade and the West African economy in the eighteenth century; 10. Atlantic commerce in the eighteenth century; 11. Tl3'