Sugar and the Expansion of the Early Modern World-Economy Commodity Frontiers, Ecological Transformation, and Industrialization*

article attempts to restore and operationalize the concept of the frontier for the study of world capitalist expansion and its structural tendency towards environmental degradation. World-sys- tems analysts have paid considerable attention to the ways in which the world-economy expands. The bulk of this work has been given over to the study of long waves, the reorganization of production units, state-formation, and other important processes. The ecological dimension, though acknowledged from time to time, has been un- deremphasized. I will trace the development and expansion of sugar cane production and trade in order to illustrate the centrality of en- vironmental dynamics as a way of rethinking the early modern history of capitalist expansion. The history of sugar production and trade is well-known. Despite the existence of a vast literature, how- ever, the environmental history of sugar has not been given the attention it deserves, nor has the link between ecological transforma- tion and the expansionary logic of world capitalism. My goal is to suggest ways of rethinking early modern capitalist expansion as a