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cost of living 86 years ago (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Damn, that's a lot of sugar. Everything else seems to be sold in "reasonable" amounts, why is the sugar so out of proportion?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago

Poundful of sugar helps the medicine go down

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'm assuming that's the wholesale price. I can't imagine a single family buying 10 lbs at a time.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

I can, given that most families did a hell of a lot more baking/cooking themselves instead of going to restaurants, buying processed food, etc.

Edit: plus, I forgot about making their own preserves and canning food, both of which require a fair bit of sugar, too.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

Preserving fruits for winter was what came to my mind.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Explains all the sugarcane farms

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Well, lots of demand for an extended period of time (ie centuries), plus a crop that grew well in areas that didn't take to traditional cash crops, and sugar was relatively easy to process into a form that shipped well even back in the Age of Sail (molasses and rum).

Frankly, there are a lot of reasons that sugar cane was a popular crop.