Welcome to the Celtnet Recipes page for the History of the Spice Trade. This is the third page, in a series of articles, gives you an introduction to the spice trade during the Middle Ages.

Please not that this recipe page (and all the other recipe pages on this site) are brought to you in association with the 'One Million People' campaign, which attempts to make available a number of ancient texts (particularly those relating to recipes) available for free on this site.

This page is presented as part of my 'History of the Spice Trade' section of the FabulousFusionFood Recipes site. You can use the table below to navigate the various sections of this history:

History of the Spice Trade History of the Spice Trade — The Ancient World History of the Spice Trade — The Middle Ages History of the Spice Trade — The European Ages of Discovery and Conquest The World-wide Spread of Chillies Spice Guide page for Chillies The History of Vanilla Adoption Spice Guide page for Vanilla Geographic List of Herbs and Spices

History Of the Spice Trade — The European Ages of Discovery and Conquest

After the break-up of the Mongol Empire (which had protected European trade to the East) and the rise of the Ottoman Empire, Europe had effectively become blockaded from the spice and silk routes. To get around this the Portugese were attempting to seek an eastward sea route to the Indes and had already established trading posts along the African coastline. By the 1480s a Genoese by the name of Christopher Columbus had devised a plan to sail to the Indes (the European term for all of south and east Asia at the time) by way of the 'Ocean Sea' (The Atlantic). Columbus' plan was based on the calculations of Marinus of Tyre as regards the amount of landmass on the Earth and his own calculations that put the earth's circumference at 25 255km (rather than the actual figure of 69 800km). This made a voyage across the Atlantic from the Azores to Cipango (Japan: known from Marco Polo's writings). However, most experts did not agree with Columbus' estimates of the Earth's circumference as they considered the Earth to be considerably larger. This meant that no ship of the age could carry sufficient provisions to make the westward voyage possible. Columbus' voyage would never had been funded if, after eight centuries of struggle against the Muslims Spain had not been unified through the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella. This led to a resurgence of religious fervour is Spain and a desire to out-compete the Portuguese. It took seven years of lobbying at the Spanish court (though he was retained on a salary the entire time) for Columbus' plan to be funded. But August 3rd 1492 three caravels left Palos on the dangerous voyage to the west. After 29 days out of sight of land, on 7 October 1492 as recorded in the ship's log the crew spotted shore birds flying west and changed direction to make their landfall. In fact they had reached the Bahamian Islands and Columbus called where they made landfall San Salvador. They reached Spain on the 3rd March 1493 where Columbus displayed the gold he had found along with the tobacco plant, the pineapple and the turkey. He also brought captive natives to show to the court. What Columbus failed to bring back was any of the fabled spices of the Indes. Though he did write about the aji 'which is their pepper, which is more valuable than black pepper, and all the people eat nothing else, it being very wholesome'. These, of course, were chilli peppers and along with calling the Americas the East Indes, the inhabitants Indians Columbus named chilli 'red pepper': all sources of confusion to this very day. In 1493 Columbus made his second voyage and this time he did discover an economically-important spice in the West Indes. This was the dried unripe fruit of Pimenta dioica which was claimed to combine the flavour of cloves, pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg (hence the English name of 'allsipice'). This qickly gained favour in Europe and paved the way for a spice trade from the New World.

What Columbus had really discovered were the Americas and not the Indes and though it was a momentous event in terms of world history the Americas could not have any significant effect on the spice trade for several centuries to come. In reality, it can be argued (at least from an economic standpoint) that the Age of Discovery proper began with the voyages of Vasco da Gama who was comissioned by King Manuel I of Portugal to find Christian lands in the East (many Christians at the time that India was the legendary Christian Kingdom of Prester Jonhn) nd to gain Portuguese access to the commercial markets of the Orient. On the 18th of July 1497 da Gama's fleet of four vessels left Lisbon. They used the the route pioneered by Bartolomeu Dias in 1486 to round the Cape of Good Hope. By December 16th the fleet had passed the White River, South Africa where Dias' expedition had turned back. By January they had reached Mozambique and were in the hertlands of the Arab spice traders. At Malindi they encountered a friendly port and there they contracted the services of Ibn Majid, an Arab navigator and cartographer, whose knowledge of the monsoon winds allowed him to bring the expedition the rest of the way to Calicut (modern Kozhikode) on the southwest coast of India where they areived on 20 May 1498. da Gama had brough no real trade goods with him and effectively he returned to Portugal empty handed. Yet the voyage had been made and a route to India was possible. da Gama's voyage also made it clear that gaining a foothold on the eastern coast of Africa was essential in terms of developing a spice trade for there fresh water and provisions could be obtained for the voyage to India. On his second voyage (1502) da Gama took a fleet of twenty warships and he used this to smash a fleet of twenty-nine ships from Calicut, southern India, effectively conquering the city and securing a Portugese foothold in the lands of pepper. da Gama was, of course, a man of his time who brough monks with him to preach Christian doctrine. He could be very cruel to Muslims and would often use torture to make his point. However, from a Portugese viewpoint the da Gama's second voyage was a great success and as he and subsequent Portugese explorers returned to Lisbon with their holds full of spices the Venetians and Egyptians were stunned, especially as the price of pepper in Lisbon fell to a fifth of that in Venice. The Egyptian and Venetian monopoly on the spice trade had been resoundingly shattered.

Competition between Spain and Portugal grew fierce during this period and Pope Alexander IV was brought into the quarrel to keep the two expansionist powers apart. This resulted in the Treaty of Tordesillas that divided the world outside of Europe in an exclusive duopoly between the Spanish and the Portuguese along a north-south meridian 370 leagues (1770 km; 1100 miles) west of the Cape Verde islands (off the west coast of Africa), roughly 46° 37' W in the mid Atlantic. The lands to the east would belong to Portugal and the lands to the west to Spain. The treaty was ratified by Spain, July 2, and by Portugal, September 5, 1494.

During this time the Portugese explorer Pedro Álvars Cabral sailed westwards in 1500 to discover Brazil. It was perceived that the new country lay east of the line of demarcation made by the Treaty of Tordesillas and messengers were sent to Portugal with the important tidings.

In terms of the spice trade Portugal's greatest coup came in 1511/1512, initailly with Afonso de Albuquerque's 1510–1511 expedition to Calicut and Malacca. In the name of Portugal Albuquerque was determined to dominate the Muslim world and to control the spice trade. Though his attack against Calicut (modern Kozhikode in India) in January 1510 was unsuccessful the subsequent move against Goa was succesful and the city was captured. Though he was unable to hold the town and was forced to return in November of the same year with re-enforcements. He next directed his forces against the Sultanate of Malacca (Modern Malaysia), which he subdued on August 24th 1511. Remaining in the town for almost a year he had all he Muslim population slaughtered to reduce religious divergence and secured this important tading port for the Protugese. Malacca was the port from which the Portugese navigator, António de Abreu was able, in 1512 to depart on an exploratory voyage to the Moluccas. He discovered the island of Timor and most importantly the Banda Islands, the world's only source of nutmeg and mace. After filling their holds with this treasuere the Portugese began to plan their return. One of their ships ran aground on a remote island. However, on hearing of the strange race of white men who had arrived in his realm the sultan of Ternate (the most important of the clove islands) sent for them and thus the Portugese uncovered the final secret of the spice trade.

Meanwhile, the Spanish, still hoping for an eastern route to the spice islands funded an expedition of five ships in 1519, led by Ferdinand Magellan. They travelled westwards and down the coast of South America, discovering the passage to the pacific (the Magellan Straits) on November 1st 1521 (indeed it was Magellan who named the sea Mare Pacifico because of the waters' apparent stillness). Setting on a north-westerly heading they eached the equator on February 13, 1521. On March 6, they reached the Marianas and on March 16, the island of Homonhon in the Philippines (by this time only 150 crewmen were left). Magellan was able to communicate with the native peoples because his Malay interpreter could understand their language. They traded gifts with Rajah Kolambu of Limasawa, who guided them to Cebu, on April 7. Rajah Humabon of Cebu was friendly to them, and even agreed to accept Christianity. However, this initial frendliy meeting with the natives of the Phillipines proved misleading and Magellan was killed in the Battle of Mactan against indigenous forces led by Lapu-Lapu on April 27, 1521. The surviving crew reached the Spice Islands on November 6 1521, however 115 crew survived so that only two ships (the Victoria and Trinidad) could be crewed. Both ships were laden with spice and began their westwards journey. However, it was soon discovered that the Trinidad was taking-on water. The Victoria headed for Spain alone as the Trinidad sought repairs. However, the Trinidad was captured by the Portugese and she was finally destroyed whilst at anchor in a Protugese prot. But, on September 6th 1522 the Victoria arrived in Spain with a tonne of spices on board. This was one of the world's great voyages, but ultimately it was to no avail as the Portuguese had already sown-up the spice trade.

The Portuguese had cornered the spice market to Europe for everything apart from cloves. For Ternate, though the main clove island had a Twin, Tidore sited little more than a kilometer from it. The rulers of these islands were linked by marriage, yet as is often the case, they were riven by rivalry and internecine strife. For much of the sixteenth century Spain and Protugal sought to gain overall control of the clove trade. Both countries entangled themselves in the long-running rivalreies between the two islands. Somehow the sultans always managed to keep the upper hand and no sooner was Spain or Protugal invited in than they were kicked out again or became embroiled in endless intrigues. These machinations lasted for decates, and Portugal eventually emerged as the dominant European player in the clove market. However, this never became a Portugese monopoly and they even allowed the Dutch to become their chief distributors in North and Western Europe.

All this came to an end in 1580 when Spain conquered Portugal. As a result Spain effectively became the only player in the spice market. They cut the Dutch out of the picture entirely and began raising prices across Europe.

This left all of Europe's other major sea-faring nations (England, the Netherlands and France) out in the cold. Firstly because the Treaty of Tordesillas had split the world between Spain and Protugal and most importantly for the Netherlands, they were no longer the agents for the conquered Portugese and has lost their slice of the spice pie. For Britain and France the answer was privateering — effectively state-sponsored piracy with great captains like Francis Drake attempting to capture as many Spanish ships and their cargoes as possible. During this time the northern territories of the Netherlands became the 'United Provinces of the Netherlands' and in 1579 effectively became independent of Spain. In 1577 Sir Francis Drake began his famous circumnavigation of the globe and in 1580 he brought his Golden Hind, fully-laden with treasures and spices into Plymouth. The Netherlands, gearing-up to be a maritime power funded a fleet under the command of Cornelis de Houtman that sailed to the Spice islands in 1595. de Houtman was no ambassador and he voyage was an unmitigated disaster in terms of establishing Dutch relations with the east Indes. However, the voyage can be seen as a symbolic victory and represents the start of the Dutch colonisation of Indonesia. In 1588 the Spanish Armada sailed against England and due to a combination of bad weather and Drake's use of fire ships the armada was defeated and scattered. This went some way to ending Spain's dominance as a maritime power. On December 31st 1600 Elizabeth I created the 'East India Company' by charter. The Netherlands formed their own Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie generally known as the VOC) in 1602. Several other countries such as Portugal, France, Sweden and Austria also created their own East India Companies during this time but none were ever as successful as the VOC.



The Age of Conquest

By 1670 the VOC was the world's richest corporation and managed to py their shareholders an annual dividend of 40% on their investments &2014; all this whilst employing their own standing army and navy. Of course, the military muscle that the VOC could command was a significant prt of their sucess, for when it came to bolstering their spice trade they had absolutely no scruples whatsoever. So desparate were the VOC for a foothold on the spice islands (especially the nutmeg islands of the Banda archipelago) that they exchanged one of their early colonies in the Americas, the swamp of New Amsterdam, for the British Island of Run. Of course, New Amsterdam eventually became Manhattan in New York. It just so happened that the nutmeg islands of Banda were under Muslim control and were fiercely independent, and traded with any Eurpean nation that wished to trade with them. This did not suit the VOC's mode of operation at all. Under the auspices of the VOC's most successful head, Jan Pieterszoon Coen convinced the 'reluctant' Bandanese to relent to his company's god-given right to monopolize the nutmeg trade. To do this he gathered together all the males over 15 that he could find the had them butchered. He then brought in Japanese mercenaries to torture, quarter and then decapitate village leaders before displaying the severed heads on poles. Witin fifteen years of the VOC arriving on the Bandu islands their population had collapsed by seventeen-fold to just 600. But they had their monopoly on the nutmeg trade.

Turning its attentions to the clove trade the VOC secured a monopoly by simply uprooting all the clove trees on Ternate and Tidore so that they could concentrate production on the island of Ambon, which it controlled. The death penalty was imposed on anyone caught growing, or posessing nutmeg or clove trees without authorization. They would even soak nutmegs in lime to prevent them from being viable. Yet, despite all this on Ternate's inacessible volcanic slopes there survives a 400-year-old clove tree, named Afo planted in defiance of the Dutch ban. Indeed, it was from this tree that a Frenchman (named Poivre) attained seedlings in 1770 that were transported to flourish in the Seychelles, Réunion and Zanzibar. In 1641 the VOC captured the city of Malacca which brought them control of the Malay peninsula and in 1658 they gained control of the cinnamon trade in Sri Lanka. When in 1663 they established exclusive trading rights to the pepper exports of the Malabar coast of western India so that by the end of the seventeenth century the Netherlands had essentially conrnered the marked in Asian spices. However, but this time culinary fashions in Europe were changing and a simpler, much less heavily-spiced form of cookery as exemplified by de la Varenne. By the mid eighteenth century, tastes had changed completely and the heavily-spiced recipes of the middle ages were seen as faintly ridiculous. The VOC found itself faced with tumbling spice prices. Indeed, by the end of the seventeenth century the VOC's profits had been tumbling steadily year on year and by the 1730s textiles had replaced spices as the VOC's main income earner. The situation had become so bad in the spice trade that the VOC was burning its own produce to artificially inflate spice prices.

Matters came to a head in 1780 with the fourth Anglo-Dutch war. The previous two decades had seen Britain surpass the Netherlands in terms of income and naval power and this led to Dutch jealousies and they began to support the North American rebels. Britain retaliated with its navy which attacked the Dutch ships of the line and also blockaded the Dutch ports on the Indian Malabar coast. These then passed into British hands and lead to almost 50 years of conflict over the Asiatic ports. However in 1824 a treaty was signed that distributed the East Indes between Britain and the Netherlands. The Dutch monopoly was effectively broken and by 1799 the VOC itself went bankrupt. During the British interregnum of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) British forces temporary control of the Banda Islands from the Dutch and transplanted nutmeg trees to their own colonial holdings elsewhere, notably Zanzibar and Grenada. Between British and French efforts the major spice-producing plants had been transplanted to British and French-controlled interests all over the world. All spice monopolies had been broken and could never occur again.

By the start of the nineteenth century the spice trade had been transformed forever. No longer was a single company or a single nation dominatinig the trade nor coulda single island dominate the trade for a single spice as the spice trees had been transported across the globe. Where there had once been secrecy and a 3000 year quest for domination and control of various spices there was now a truly global international spice market.

The quest for spices transformed the world and drove much of European expansion for the profits from these rare commodities could make individuals and entire countries vastly wealthy.

The next section in this article deals with the Adoption of Chilli in the Old World and how this single spice travelled from the Americas and became accepted in almost every part of Europe, Asia and Africa between 1498 and 1549.