Sugar was the single most valuable bulk commodity traded internationally before oil became the world's prime resource. This book questions some major assumptions about the nexus between sugar production and colonial societies in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, especially in the second (post-1800) colonial era.

"The book is an invaluable contribution to the study of the political economies of these regions and offers fresh perspectives on metropolis-colony interactions. It challenges the Euro/US-centric historiography?[it] introduces the reader to a variety of archival sources."  ·  The Newsletter of the International Institute for Asian Studies