Translations:Ginger/13/en

The ginger plant was smuggled onto the Caribbean islands from Asia sometime in the 16th century, along with black pepper, cloves, and cinnamon, at the encouragement of the Spanish Crown, though only ginger thrived. It eventually displaced sugar to become the leading export crop on both Hispaniola and Puerto Rico by the end of the century, until the introduction of slave labour from Africa made sugar more economical to produce in the 17th century.