By what economic logic did demand for sugar coffee and tobacco strengthen slavery?

Correct answer: It increased demand for forced labour for profitable plantation production

The governing concept is the connection between European consumer demand, plantation production, profit, and forced labour. Sugar, coffee, and tobacco were valuable commodities in European markets. As demand and prices grew, colonial plantation owners sought to expand production and reduce labour costs. Enslaved people were coerced to work under brutal conditions, allowing plantations to produce export crops at high profit for owners and merchants. Thus option D correctly explains the economic logic: profitable plantation expansion increased the demand for forced labour. Options A and C concern political rights, not production, and B is the opposite of what occurred because demand encouraged plantations to expand rather than close.