The era of the geographical discoveries brought about a transplantation of crops in both directions--from Europe as well as into it--and a modification of diet, taste, and habit, which became fully effective only with the development of modern means of transportation in later centuries. Pride of place must be given to the potato, which had been cultivated in South America for at least 2,000 years before its conquest by the Spaniards, who first introduced the plant to Europe in or before the year 1570. It was probably first brought to England independently, though not by Sir Walter Raleigh. From England it reached Ireland, though we cannot exclude the possibility that it came direct, as it figured among the plunder from Spanish ships wrecked along the coast of Connaught. The English in turn introduced it to Virginia, where it was originally called 'the Irish potato' to distinguish it from the sweet potato. In the eighteenth century the potato began to be used commonly for the preparation of alcohol by fermentation. But its spread as a foodstuff was the direct product of necessity: it became staple diet in Ireland during the seventeenth century. In the rest of Britain, and in France, it was not much used before the late eighteenth century, when Britain needed it to feed a growing industrial population. In Prussia its use was commanded by Frederick the Great, but in central and northern Europe as a whole the potato did not become one of the main crops until the nineteenth century. Maize, or Indian corn, was also brought at an early date to Europe. Magellan is believed to have spread its use to the Philippines and the East Indies, and the Portuguese also took it to West Africa, where it was apparently first grown for ships' stores for slavers. It was not adapted to the climate of northern Europe, but flourished in the south-east, where maize porridge quickly became a staple food.

In the reverse direction, sugar and rice were the two most important food crops introduced by Europeans to American soil. The latter, requiring a hot climate and irrigation, had been brought by the Muslims to Spain in the eighth century, whence its cultivation spread to Italy, and from there in turn it was transplanted to South Carolina about 1700. Sugar (an Arabic word) had a rather similar early history, but in the later Middle Ages its importation from the Near East had been an increasingly important feature of Genoese and Venetian trade, though the cane itself was also grown in Spain and Sicily. It was taken to the New World on Columbus's second voyage, but large-scale cultivation became common in the middle of the seventeenth century, when slave-owning planters in the French and British West Indian islands copied the methods and appliances of the Dutch. By 1700 sugar could be bought in England at 6d. a pound; honey had finally lost its pre-eminence as a sweetening agent, which dated from time immemorial.

The raw sugar was made in West Indian factories, where the pieces of sugar-cane were crushed in a roller-mill, which might be worked by wind- or water-power. There were then successive boilings, in which the juice was reduced to a syrup and the scum and dirt removed at intervals. This finally produced a solution so concentrated that it would crystallize on cooling; the syrup or molasses from which the crystals separated provided the basis for the manufacture of rum by fermentation and distillation. The further refining of the sugar was done in Europe, a solution of the unrefined product being boiled in a mixture containing lime-water and blood until it became completely clear. After being filtered through cloth and concentrated by evaporation, it was allowed to crystallize in pottery moulds, which gave it the characteristic sugar-loaf shape.

Tea, coffee, and cocoa have never been grown in Europe. The first named belongs to China, the last to the New World. The stimulating qualities of coffee, however, appear to have become first known in Ethiopia in 1450. It spread via Aden to the Mohammedan world and thence to the Christian, reaching Paris in 1643 and Oxford in 1650. The strong influence which coffee-houses soon exercised upon society and politics illustrates the far-reaching consequences of minor innovations. The Dutch took coffee shrubs successively to Java, Guiana, and finally Brazil. In the course of the eighteenth century, tea--first shipped to Europe, so far as is known, by the Dutch East India Company in 1609--became a drink familiar to all classes in England, as coffee did in other European countries. The vogue of drinking-chocolate, however, depended upon the plenteousness of sugar, for it was unpalatable if drunk unsweetened. Although a slab form of chocolate suitable for eating was known in Spain as early as 1520, its popularity as a cheap and convenient eatable in Britain dates at the earliest from Gladstone's free-trade budget of 1853.

Tobacco likewise came from the New World, and was indeed offered to Columbus on his first landing. It was first used in Europe as a medicine, in the belief that the natives of Brazil employed it to 'carry off the superfluous humors of the brain'. It was being cultivated in Europe as a cash crop by the end of the sixteenth century-in Spain in 1558, and in Gloucestershire by emigrants returned from Virginia in 1586. Although the growth spread from Europe to Turkey and the Near East, the main line of development was that which began when seeds from Spanish-American plantations were brought to Virginia in 1612. Powdered tobacco was brought to Portugal for snuff-taking in 1558, and an important sale developed. The making of tobacco and snuff involved no new developments in technology, but their prominence in the Stuart and Hanoverian scene runs parallel with the increasing use of spirits. Much aqua vitae was made from fermented corn; gin crossed from Holland to Britain; wines were commonly fortified with brandy; and whisky distilled from Irish and Scottish barley became an important feature of English sideboards. Hence there arose a widespread interest in distillation apparatus.

Trans-oceanic produce, however, did not for a long time replace the staple cereals of Europe, where flour-milling was a major industry, employing both water- and wind-power. Although the basic principles of the milling process remained unchanged--that is to say, grinding between a fixed and a rotating stone--there were many refinements of detail. The grooves, incised in both stones, were a key feature, since they both cut and ventilated the meal as it passed out to the circumference, and various characteristic patterns were evolved. The dressing of stones was done either by the miller or by a skilled itinerant craftsman, and the stones themselves were often brought from remote sources, their texture being of the first importance. Thus some English stones came from Andernach on the Rhine, and French stones were even exported to America. Mills were numerous and correspondingly small, each serving its own locality, since before the industrial revolution there was no strong inducement to transport grain long distances for grinding. . .

Free term papers are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can use our professional writing services to buy a custom written research paper, term paper, or essay on Technology at affordable price. CustomTermPapers is the best solution for those who seek help in writing term papers, essays, and research papers related to Technology and other relevant topics.