Spice trade

Spice Trade

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Spice Origins

• Arabian peninsula
  • myrrh and frankincense
    • oils derived for medicinal and aromatic purposes that were highly valued
  • sugar << get dates when was
• China
  • silk
  • black tea
• India
  • pepper
    • see [pepper] for more
  • sugar
  • cotton
• Spice Islands
  • ginger, pepper, cloves, saffron, cinnamon, cardomom
  • nutmeg
    • see Nutmeg
    • Banda islands were the sole sources of nutmeg
    • nutmeg is traditionally used in Europe as a spice for vegetables, eggnog, mulled cider and in meat stews
    • In India and Indonesia nutmeg is traditionally used in soups and deserts

Trade Commodities

• Gems
  • highly valuable
  • standard value across regions (portable)
• See also [Money] << to do

Price of Spices in Europe

• 15th century (1400s)
  • pepper sold in Venice (to northern European markets) at 27 times or 2700% of cost in India
  • nutmeg sold in London or Paris at 600 times, or 6,000% the original cost in the Banda Islands, one of the spice island groups
• The Portuguese broke into the Indian market by circumnavigating Africa and sailing to India
  • the Portuguese secured trade concessions in Calcutta
  • they then forcibly seized control of trade with Malaka (in modern Malaysia) a major spice-trade center
  • this allowed them to by-pass Indian markets and purchase spices at their origins at much lower prices
    • the Portuguese and Indian relationship was both trade- and war-based << to source
    • the Italian monopoly on the pepper market collapsed from Portuguese competition
    • by 1588 profits from pepper trade accounted for half of Portuguese government revenue
• Sources:
  • The Spice Trade
  • A history lesson in trade from the Spice Islands