During the 1700s the economy of Saint Domingue expanded due to sugar and later coffee export crops. By the middle of the 18th century, Saint Domingue which became known as the "Pearl of the Antilles", was one of the wealthiest colonies in the world thanks to the million pounds of exported sugar, indigo and cotton. The slave trade allowed the French rulers who had colonized Saint Domingue, to make huge profits by means of the African slaves' labor in the plantations since Europe consumed 40 percent of all the sugar and 60 percent of all the coffee produced in the island.
