
For 200 years after 1650 the West Indies were the most fought-over colonies in the world as Europeans made & lost immense fortunes growing & trading in sugar
- a commodity so lucrative that it was known as white gold. Young men beset by death & disease an ocean away from the moral anchors of life in Britain created immense dynastic wealth but produced a society poisoned by war sickness cruelty & corruption. The Sugar Barons explores the lives & experiences of those whose fortunes rose & fell with the West Indian empire. From the ambitious & brilliant entrepreneurs to the grandees wielding power across the Atlantic to the inheritors often consumed by decadence disgrace & madness this is the compelling story of how a few small islands & a handful of families decisively shaped the British Empire.