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Abstract: From the 18th century ‘querelle du luxe’ to 21st century econometrics, sugar consumption has been attributed with special properties representative of a country’s degree of social and economic progress. Whether one interprets this in cultural (consumer revolution) or economic terms (as a proxy for the increase in incomes and the closing of the wealth gap), consuming more sugar seems to be a necessary step on the path to modernity. There are, however, some variables that are independent of a country’s ‘modernity’ which may have a negative effect on its level of consumption, making its representativeness less certain. In particular, the relationship between the State and consumption remains largely unexplored, with regard both to the effects of taxation on demand models and to the model of consumption endorsed by the State, of which taxation itself, to some extent, is an expression. In the case of southern Italy under the Bourbons, the State based its approach on an elaborate conceptualisation of the demand structure, and strove to adapt sugar consumption to the broader aims of its economic policy.

Keywords: Sugar consumption; economic policy; taxation system; smuggling; southern Italy