The invention of the sugarcane mill greatly revolutionized the Caribbean sugar growing industry in the 17th century, an industry that generated great wealth.Barbadian Sephardi Jew, David Rafael de Mercado(, (b. - 1685) invented the first sugarcane mill, which crushed the sugarcane, a process needed to prevent fermentation. Below David Rafael de Mercado's gravestone at the Nidhe Israel Cemetery, Bridgetown, Barbados.