This excerpt might provide some interesting reading on the current subject. The complete article, originally published in the ECONOMIST magazine was titled;
The Spice Trade, A Taste of Adventure: KERALA, INDIA, AND THE MOLUCCA ISLANDS, INDONESIA --------------------------------------------------------- Soon after dawn on May 21st 1498, Vasco da Gama and his crew arrived at Calicut after the first direct sea voyage from Europe to Asia. If historys modern age has a beginning, this was it. Europes ignorance of, and isolation from, the cosmopolitan intellectual and commercial life of Asia were ended forever. With ships, weaponry and a willingness to use them both, the countries of Europe were about to colonize the rest of the world. To support this expansion, its merchant classes would invent new forms of commercial credit and the first great corporations, vital parts of capitalisms operating system, and spread their trading networks across the seven seas. And what did the men shout as they came ashore? "For Christ and spices!" The proselytising part turned out to be disappointingly unnecessary: there were already plenty of Christians living on the Malabar coast, following the arrival of a Syrian contingent many centuries earlier. But as far as spice went, Vasco da Gama and his crew were right on the money. Then, as now, Calicut was a gateway to the worlds greatest pepper-growing region indeed this was why the Syrians had moved there in the first place. As such it was at the heart of the spice trade, a network of sea routes and entrepôts in the making for millennia: the world economys oldest, deepest, most aromatic roots. --------------------------------------------------------- The complete article can be found at, http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/spicetrd.html Asit K. ghosh ========================================================= From: "Teotonio R. de Souza [Moderator-GRN]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Goa Research Net] Portuguese Discoveries, Smithsonian and Turner: Just another media stunt? Date: Sun, 03 Dec 2006 11:50:08 -0000 THE DISCOVERIES MARKED THE END OF THE FASCINATION FOR SPICES Lisboa, Jornal PÚBLICO, 3 December 2006, Sunday Bulletin on Culture, p. 33 Trade in spices did not begin with the arrival of Vasco da Gama in India in 1498 as we are made to believe in the text books in our first classes of History of Portuguese Discoveries. The Egyptians used spices and the Romans had organized trade routes for commerce of spices. Jack Turner, an Australian researcher and author of Spice The History of a Temptation, reconstructs the history of spice trade from Egypt to the arrival of the Portuguese, the English and the Dutch in the East. The only major difference that the Portuguese introduced was the change of the route. Turner wrote one of the 20 essays for the catalogue of the exposition entitled Encompassing the Globe, which has been inaugurated in Washington at the Simthsonian Institute. The exposition seeks to present the views of a new generation of historians. Turner seeks to respond to a central issue and question: Why were the spices so important for the Portuguese? They were used since the second millennium BP for cooking, as medicines and as aphrodisiacs. They were much sought by the elites. The results were not always the most satisfying, and some were even recipes for torture: imagine a mix of honey, peper and wine for better sight, or applying pepper to genitals as sexual stimulant! Pepper was most in demand before and after the Portuguese discovery of the Cape route. In the first years of this route in the 16th century nearly 90 % of the Portuguese cargo consisted of pepper. When there were shipwrecks with this cargo aboard, they would provoke black tidal waves. Despite the Portuguese crown investments, it never made the expected profits with this trade. Bad administration and excessive expenses with transport and defence did not permit the Portuguese to neutralize its rivals. The Portuguese crown tried in vain to fix the prices in Europe by trying to keep the monopoly of this trade. It never succeeded in doing this. There was corruption and parallel black market which benefited the country, but not the crown. Despite the limited benefits, the spices were greatly responsible for promoting a new vision of the world. It would not have been possible without Gama, who cannot be seen as a discoverer, but as a merchant and investor. Turner concludes that the Portuguese Discoveries had a major cultural impact and were vital for the evolution of the modern world and for the beginning of the globalization. Very differently from the traditional economic and political readings of the impact of the pepper, cinnamon and ginger trade, the Australian historian is more interested in analysing the impact upon the lives and imagination of peoples across centuries. The high point of the trade in spices was also the end point of their fascination. Lucinda Canelas ======================================================== Asit K. Ghosh Rockledge, Florida 32955, USA LAT 28*17'50.33" North / LONG 80*43'57.77" West http://www.asitghosh.com ____________________________________________________________________________________ Need a quick answer? Get one in minutes from people who know. Ask your question on www.Answers.yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Goanet supports BMX, the alumni network of Britto's, St Mary's and Xavier's -- three prominent institutions in Mapusa, Goa. Events scheduled from Dec 16 to 21, 2006 For more details visit http://www.bmxgoa.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------