Sugar cultivation created a demand for labor. Planters, however, spent money importing goods to maintain the plantation workforce, in the grand scheme of things; they still earned higher and consistent returns on sugar production due to the “unfree” labor of African slaves. When taken into account the cost and amount of employees that would have been needed to maintain a successful sugar manufacturing operation, it would have been nearly impossible for growers to generate the amount of wealth that they generated in the decades following the introduction of sugar in America.