Since ancient times, human beings have a stubborn and persistent love for sweetness. In modern daily diet, sugar is ubiquitous, and it is essential as a basic energy source or as a flavoring agent for food. It is such a particularly common article that it is a rare import for Europeans in history. The emergence of sucrose is of great significance in human history, so how did sugar come into being and spread all over the world? Why has sucrose changed from an expensive luxury in Europe to an ordinary thing that the general public can consume? What does sweetness have to do with power? Sugar 1. How is sugar produced and spread all over the world? Ji Xianlin, a famous historian in China, found in his book History of Sucrose that sucrose is called "cini" in Hindi, which means "China's". Through textual research, Mr. Ji found that Emperor Taizong once sent people to India to learn the method of sugar production, but it was not until the end of the Ming Dynasty that the white sugar we eat today appeared. As a sugar merchant, China came from behind and became the world's leading sugar producer at that time, and exported it to India, so India called white sugar from China "cini". This shows the popularity and influence of sugar in the China world. The history of sugarcane can be traced back to ancient times. Around 8000 BC, Guinea began to cultivate and produce sucrose artificially, and then spread to India, where sugar was made. This technology spread all over the world. Nowadays, there is no doubt that the document of sugar production appeared in the Buddhist classic Fazang in 500 AD. From the 4th century to the 8th century, the main sugar-making centers in the world were located in the coastal areas from the west of the Indus Delta to the mouth of the Persian Gulf on the Euphrates-Tigris River. After the 8th century, the sucrose production in the colonies began to be known and consumed by Europeans, but northern Europe probably didn't know anything about it until AD 1000. At that time, the expansion of people to the west marked a turning point in Europeans' understanding of sugar. With the conquest of * * * people, sugar-making technology spread in the Mediterranean region. Since then, the sucrose produced in the Mediterranean coastal areas has been supplied to North Africa, the Middle East and the European continent. Until the late16th century, the sucrose production in the New World colonies rose to a dominant position. Coupled with the Crusades, Europeans became the controllers of sugar production in the conquered areas. 2. How did sugar change from luxury goods of European aristocrats to consumer goods of ordinary people? With the increasing awareness and demand for sugar in Europe, sugarcane plantations using African slaves as labor force have been established on Atlantic islands. At that time, sucrose, as a luxury, played a role in the policies of some countries, which predicted their political future. In the following centuries, with the formation of the "trade triangle", France and Britain gradually replaced Spain and Portugal as the largest sugar producers and exporters in the western world. Trade triangle 12 century, sugar first appeared in Britain. /kloc-in the 0/3rd century, sucrose was sold by volume and weight, which was expensive and only the rich could afford it. At the end of 15, the sucrose produced in Atlantic islands replaced the sucrose in North Africa and the Mediterranean, and the price once fell, but it rose again in the middle of 16 century. This is still a luxury, not a luxury. The mass market for sucrose appeared very slowly. In the18th century, it was still monopolized by a few privileged classes and the rich, and it did not become a mass consumer product until the end of18th. /kloc-at the end of 0/6, white sugar was known as "platinum", and only European aristocrats could afford it. The main uses of sucrose are divided into five categories, namely, medicine, spices, decorations, sweeteners and preservatives. When sucrose is used as spice and condiment, it can change the taste of food. In dishes with meat, fish, poultry or vegetables as the main raw materials, sucrose is juxtaposed with spices such as cinnamon and saffron. As for decorations, sucrose can be used to make various sugar sculptures. Based on the high cost, this activity was initially limited to kings, nobles, knights and priests, and then gradually spread to the lower classes. As a special status of medicine, sucrose and its application methods have been integrated into European medical practice with the medical knowledge recorded in classic works in the process of religious spread. As a sweetener, the role of sucrose is highlighted by the popularity of tea, coffee and chocolate. At the same time, the change of spices in Tian Xiang marks a fundamental change in the use of sucrose in Britain. The antiseptic effect of sucrose has long been known, and it has the characteristics of dehumidification, preservation and direct isolation. 3. Why does sugar become a symbol of social class status in Britain? The overlapping of various uses of sucrose is determined by its diversified characteristics. At the same time, in the process of using these usages, the symbolic functions of identity and class are shaped intentionally or unintentionally, thus profoundly affecting British social culture. Westminster, the author of Sweetness and Strength, points out that the history of sucrose use in Britain reveals two basic changes: the first change is marked by the popularity of sweetened tea and candied fruit since 1750; Secondly, from about 1850, mass consumption entered the historical stage. Therefore, sucrose has changed from a rare product of 1650 and a luxury product of 1750 to a necessity of 1850. This change marks that sucrose has finally changed from a rare product to the first product full of interaction between capitalist labor productivity and consumption. The production and consumption of sucrose are closely related to electricity. In the process of changing from rare imported food to ordinary daily consumer goods, sucrose has been given new meanings, which are manifested as internal meaning and external meaning respectively. "Intrinsic meaning" mainly refers to the changes of people's eating behavior, including the increase of sucrose consumption, occasions and uses, and also refers to the continuation of the past, that is, the inheritance of symbolic ceremonies related to sucrose. At the same time, the power class determines the emergence and significance of new things. Although the power class can control the acquisition of new things, new users can give them new meaning. Four. Conclusion The history of sucrose changing from luxury to common consumer goods is of intriguing significance. In this transformation process, it is not only closely related to capitalist industries, overseas colonies and even the world political economy, but also affects the shaping of social culture through the gradual embedding of people's daily life. In the process of sugar production and consumption, the benefits brought by imperial acts such as conquest, expansion and colonial trade. Therefore, sucrose plays a very important role in colonial history, commercial activities, political conspiracy and legal policy formulation. The steady growth of cane sugar production and consumption, the change of cane sugar on people's daily diet, and Britain's gradual transformation into a sugar-addicted country are all determined by forces outside the British public, that is, cultural factors, which are not the result of natural cultural evolution, but endowed by the will and interests of power, that is, national rulers, and are closely related to the country's own economic, social and political destiny. It can be said that sugar has shaped the power of British society in a sense. Reference: Ji Xianlin: History of Sucrose, China Customs Press, 2009. Westminster: sweetness and power: the position of sugar in modern history, Commercial Press, 20 18.