The first cane sugar

Many foreign trading posts were set up in Antwerp around 1500. Two Zeelandic ships arrived in 1508. They contained cane sugar from the Canary island Tenerife.

This cargo was sent by Genoese merchant Francisco de Riverol. It was the start of a flourishing sugar trade in the city on the Scheldt. This work from 1899 is the preliminary sketch for a historic wall painting. Today it still hangs in Antwerp's city hall.