The Nazon rum factory just east of Cap Hatien, Haiti, is an efficient operation, set off from the coastal road by an imposing gate and a complement of armed guards. Poles of sugar cane – about 3-meters long with a purple-brown woody outer rind – come in by the truckload, destined for steam-powered crushing, distillation, fermentation, and bottling. Along the busy roads of Cap Hatien, vendors sell bottles of Nazon in front of concrete walls splashed with the brand's orange painted ads.
Production plants like Nazon can be found throughout the Caribbean, shipping the liquor around the world and bringing in millions of dollars. Rum and the Caribbean go together like Germany and currywurst, but it wasn't necessarily an inevitable marriage. In fact, the rise of sugar cane in the region marked an important transition in the history of exploration and empire.
One of the central characters in this story was Harri (Henry) Morgan, the Welshman better known as the swashbuckling buccaneer posing with a barrel on Captain Morgan rum bottles the world over.
Henry Morgan was born into a family with a long tradition of military service that was frequently rewarded by governorships and land deeds. With little tolerance for a sedentary life, Morgan made his way to the Caribbean in the late 1650s to join Oliver Cromwell’s initiative to invade Hispanola. That particular effort failed, but naval officers saw great potential in the Welshman; by 1661, Morgan was given his first captainship, a sign of his talent, the navy’s desperate condition, or, perhaps both.
The repercussions of Morgan’s promotion would ring throughout the Caribbean and Europe as he perfected his style of nimble raids on wealthy ports of British enemies under the tacit approval of the central government. His resume of successful plunders grew rapidly: Gran Grenada, Puerto Principe, Porto Bello, Cartagena, Maracaibo, Panama. Morgan recruited a rag-tag group of buccaneers before each raid, leading to predictable squabbles and legal gray areas.
But even as his marauding career was progressing, Morgan was plotting a new project. Rather than retire to an English manor and live comfortably off of his riches, Morgan invested in real estate, buying nearly 5,000 acres in Jamaica. The fields were perfect for cultivating sugar cane, which soon became a lucrative feather in the British Empire’s cap. Morgan was rewarded with political appointments and a knighthood.
The move from marauding pirate to businessman was a fundamental shift from government-sponsored highway robbery to an economically sustainable – and legal – mode of economic development. It's an argument made persuasively by Niall Ferguson in his book Empire: “The Empire had begun with the stealing of gold; it progressed with the cultivation of sugar,” he writes. Morgan’s career epitomized the crown’s “transition from piracy to political power that would change the world forever.”
