<P> For about 100 years, Barbados remained the richest of all the European colonies in the Caribbean . The colony's prosperity remained regionally unmatched until sugar cane production expanded in larger countries, such as Saint Domingue and Jamaica . As part of the mass sugar industry, sugar cane processing gave rise to related commodities such as rum, molasses, and falernum . </P> <P> The West India Interest was formed in the 1740s, when the British merchants joined with the West Indian sugar planters . The British and West Indies shared profits and needs . This organization was the first sugar - trading organization which had a large voice in Parliament . </P> <P> In the 1740s, Jamaica and Saint Domingue (Haiti) became the world's main sugar producers . They increased production in Saint Domingue by using an irrigation system that French engineers built . The engineers also built reservoirs, diversion dams, levees, aqueducts, and canals . In addition, they improved their mills and used varieties of cane and grasses . </P> <P> After the end of slavery in Saint Domingue at the turn of the 19th century, with the Haitian Revolution, Cuba became the most substantial sugar plantation colony in the Caribbean, outperforming the British islands . </P>

How important was sugar production to the european colonies