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Although the most fabulous profits were available through exotic products such as nutmeg, mace and cloves, the less expensive pepper was perhaps the most significant export of all. This is because of the sheer scale of the trade. Huge areas of land were taken under cultivation to meet the voracious and profitable demand for pepper, which swiftly became a staple of the aristocratic kitchen. Although the idea that people needed spices to hide the rotten taste of food they had to eat is rather overstated, it is true that pepper helped to disguise the taste of salt - salting was the way to keep food over the winter and so, for months, everything tasted of salt. No wonder people turned to drink, especially in Britain, where ale was much safer to drink than the water. Ultimately, the presence of spices, like the presence of oil or other valuable natural resources, tended to be of ambivalent value to the people who lived nearby. While they were able to control the trade under equitable terms, the spices were important parts of the local economy. However, when the spices encouraged invaders to come and colonise them, removing their freedom as well as their wealth, they were little more than a curse. Reid, Anthony, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce 1450-1680, Vol.2: Expansion and Crisis (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1993). Turner, Jack, Spice: The History of a Temptation (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004). My review of this book for the Asian Review of Books is available here: http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/arb/ar... Go To Page: 1 2 |
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