Sugar Union

This project focuses on the Sugar Union, an international organization founded in 1902 to regulate the international sugar trade. Its unprecedented authority to determine economic policy of its member states was often cited as a model for later organizations. However, the Sugar Union was short-lived, rendered ineffective by Great Britain leaving the organization in 1913 and officially discontinued in 1920.
Little is known about the Sugar Union and its protracted end, as well as its impact on the subsequent sugar agreements of the 1930s and 1950s or other international organizations, like the League of Nations. Focusing on actors, ideas and practices, this PhD project will trace continuities and disruptions in the afterlife of the Sugar Union and analyze its impact on European governance.