Answer:
It provides background on how a family from Russia got into the sugar business.
Explanation:
The book <em>Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science </em>tells about the development of the sugar business, starting from its origins in New Guinea in 7000 B.C. to the 21st century and production of ethanol. An important topic in the book is a blood trail this industry left - the deaths of countless African slaves forced into sugar production.
This particular excerpt tells a story about how an ancestor of one Russian family entered the sugar business as a serf, a farmer bound to his lord's land, which he works on.
