“And it emphasises to everybody else that it is out of reach.”Īs a result, the hunger for spices went well beyond their aromatic flavour. “Spices give the elites opportunity for extravagant display,” says Van Der Veen. This came with a profound social, emotional and economic impact in Europe, says Van Der Veen.
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But more importantly, spices became another way to define what it meant to be wealthy and powerful. The result was a lasting change to people’s diets in Europe, which became a lot less bland and monotonous. “We see that even more significantly in the medieval period.” “This is very much the start of globalisation,” says Van Der Veen. This began in the Roman period, extending through the middle ages. The flow of spices from one part of the world to another sparked the need to develop extensive infrastructure on land and by the coast, says Marijke van der Veen, emeritus professor of archaeology at the University of Leicester. As well as their financial loss, da Gama maintained a bloody attack on Arab merchants at sea in order to establish and defend the new spice route from India to Europe. His arrival on India’s Malabar Coast, the heart of the spice trade, marked the start of direct trading between Europe and South East Asia.ĭa Gama’s voyage, and that of his country, was a heavy blow to the Arab traders. The mission was driven by a desire to find a direct route to the places where spices were plentiful and cheap, cutting out the middlemen. In 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama made the first sea voyage from Europe to India, via the southernmost tip of Africa. Those who controlled the spices could divert the flow of wealth around the world.īut the secret of the origins of spices such as cinnamon could only be kept for so long. This demand gave rise to some of the first truly international trade routes and shaped the structure of the world economy in a way that can still be felt today. It might seem odd that something as seemingly inconsequential as a spice – a food flavouring or something to burn to add aroma to the air – would need such jealous guarding with elaborate tall tales.īut the world’s demand for spices grew throughout the Roman era and into the medieval period, defining economies from India to Europe.
![imperialism 2 merchant imperialism 2 merchant](http://speed-new.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/375663464634562546.jpg)
For many years, the ancient Greeks and Romans were fooled.
![imperialism 2 merchant imperialism 2 merchant](https://tmm.chicagodistributioncenter.com/IsbnImages/9780226533315.jpg)
The story was most likely invented to ward off curious competitors from attempting to seek out the source of the spice. Then quick-witted traders could gather up the fallen cinnamon and take it to market.Īs enticing as the tale is, the fabled cinnamologus never existed. The precarious cinnamon nests would collapse when the bird returned weighted with its catch. The birds would fly down from their nests, snatch up the meat, and fly back. One way to get the cinnamon was to bait the cinnamologus with large chunks of meat. This large bird made its nest from delicate cinnamon sticks, the traders said. Nearly 2,500 years ago, Arab traders told stories of the ferocious cinnamon bird, or cinnamologus.