A plate from Bryan Edwards, ‘The history, civil and commercial, of the British colonies in the West Indies’ (3rd edition, London, 1801).

Sugar was the main crop of the Caribbean islands. Sugar plantations were more than just large farms. In fact, they more closely resembled the huge manufacturing operations and industrial factories that developed in Britain in the 19th century.
Sugar was grown and harvested on the plantations, but it was also processed and packaged in the sugar works before being shipped to Britain, where it was refined and subsequently sold, or re-exported to Europe.