Empires and the Spice Trade
Health and global wealth creation
The names India and the Spice Islands of South East Asia have always conjured up the image of exotic gourmet meals that are healthy and tasty. The aromas and flavors stimulate all our senses and makes eating pure poetry on the taste buds.
Pepper, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg were such sought after commodities that 500 hundred years ago it encouraged the spirit of European enterprise that hoped to cash in on the lucrative Asian spice trade.
Adventurers like Vasco Da Gama succeeded in opening up a sea route around Africa to India and the spice trade. Columbus attempted to reach the Indian commodity markets by sailing across the Atlantic Ocean. He instead stumbled upon what came to be known as the West Indies and the Americas where European explorers insisted on calling the natives, Indians; renaming their chilies as peppers.
Traders in London and Amsterdam chartered East India companies to raise capital to send ships out to what was then called the East Indies to profit from the spice trade. Coffee became a commodity in this trade. This lead to the creation of the modern Multi-National Corporation, the London Stock Exchange at a London coffeehouse and a global insurance trade at another coffeehouse, Lloyd’s of London.
Coffee and spice and every thing nice in healthy foods helped build the British Empire and transform the Americas with settlement into a global economic giant. The Boston tea party spurred the trade in coffee which today has become a pick me up for the thousands working in the New York financial markets.
Spices have always been lucrative commodities in the trade along the Silk Road and Sea Route across Asia from Egypt to Babylon, Persia, India, China, and the Indo-Chinese empires of Champa, Kemboja, Majapahit, Sri Vijaya and Langkasuka. The Greeks and the Romans were early beneficiaries of these trades in Europe.
But the Europeans from the 16th century onwards began the transformation of the spice trade into the foundation of modern global trade with the introduction of South American chilies into the cuisine of India. This east meets west Indies of commodities trade not only continued the centuries of culinary amalgamation of cultures in the cooking pot but also made spices an integral part of all human cultures.
Spices add flavor to food, promote healthy living, and generate wealth through trade.
What used to be precious ingredients for the food of the wealthy aristocracy, nobility and merchants is today readily available in most major supermarkets for all peoples. Gourmet eating is now affordable to the general population and is no longer the reserve of the rich.
As spices are researched for health benefits and ancient sciences like ayurveda meet contemporary science in laboratories around the world, the spice trade may reach beyond the food industry and begin to impact positively on the health and pharmaceutical industries. At this point the old adage, health is wealth, will take on a new financial meaning as the demand in the commodity spurs the global trade to new heights.
The spice trade has resulted in today’s world being more prosperous for all peoples worldwide with every culture being able to lay claim to spices being an integral part of their various culinary cultures and traditions.
Enjoy the wealth of spices!
Siddha Param
International Business Consultant
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, North America
The geographical centre of the worlds’ largest market.
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