The A. analyses two different mental altitudes towards sugar production techniques in the Antilles and in Brazil in early XVlllth.century, as registerd by two reports wrilten in French by Jean-Baptiste Labat (1722) and in Portuguese by André João Antonil (1711 ). Altention is called to the problem of economic rationality as endorsed by New World slave-owners looking for technical innovations.
History of sugar; Antilles; Brazil; Technical innovation; Economic mtionality; Labat.Antonil