Place Name
In the 19thCentury Cuba was the leading producer of sugar in the world, its output dwarfing the British West Indies by the 1850s. A number of factors helped fuel this boom, firstly, the Spanish allowed foreign vessels to use the island’s ports; the late abolition of slavery in Spanish colonies, in 1886, more than 50 years after the British, meant that many Europeans switched investment into Cuba to reduce costs; and thirdly the advances in sugar cane refinement did not reach Cuba until the Haitian Revolution in the nearby French colony of Saint-Domingue. Thousands of refugee French planters fled to Cuba and other islands in the West Indies, bringing their slaves and expertise in sugar refining and coffee growing into eastern Cuba in the 1790s and early 19thCentury. This road led directly to the West India Dock pier on the River Thames. It and other nearby roads reflect the trade of the time.
