1400s
1400s: Sugarcane cultivation was extended by Italian and Iberian merchants to Atlantic islands such as Madeira and the Canaries.
1400s: Sugarcane cultivation was extended by Italian and Iberian merchants to Atlantic islands such as Madeira and the Canaries. This expansion of the sugar system into the Atlantic served as a precursor to the plantation economies of the New World.
Source · p. xix
Eltis & Richardson, Atlas, xix