Dr. Spaulding reads aloud Howard W. French's text.  In this chapter, he emphasizes the sheer economic power of the sugar industry and the reasons for why Portugal reeled in its empire to Brazil and Angola.  Further, he contrasts the management and bureaucratic styles of Spain and Portugal in the administration of its empires based on mining and sugar plantations, aka. black labor in black mines (ovens) and sugar mills (ovens).  Hence, the title of the chapter.