Confections for Everyone

Industrialization, cheaper sugar supplies, changing social attitudes, and nonconformist religion all played a part in increasing the availability of confections in the nineteenth century. They were still loved for their flavors and textures. Sugar continued to be used as a preservative, and some of the old notions about its efficacy as medicine persisted. But confections of all sorts were also a source of profit, especially for individuals from sects like the Quakers, who sought to combine philanthropic work with making money in trades such as food production. In England, their drive laid the foundations for many chocolate confections.