by Dianne Sharma-Winter

Created on: February 19, 2010

The next time you sprinkle some pepper on your pasta, consider this. The humble peppercorn was once one of the most powerful symbols of prosperity and wealth. This most ancient of all spices has spawned wars and epic tales, healed the sick and made millionaires a thousand times over in it’s long history.The Spice Route traces itself in lazy circles from Arabia through to South Asia collecting a few countries along the way. A major point in this route was the Malabar Coast in the Southern Indian state of Kerala where pepper grows in wild indigenous abundance amongst the impossibly green landscape.

One can only imagine with what wide-eyed wonder the early Arab traders would have viewed this land of dreams when they first arrived. Sailing their wooden Dows up waterways that directly linked the pepper-laden forests to the open sea of trade, were they giddy with the heady perfume of towering cinnamon trees and gasping with delight at nodding cardamom groves? Or were their minds busy wondering how they would keep this unexplored treasure to themselves? The Arabs managed to keep a monopoly on the pepper trade for many years with tales of witches and giant birds in cinnamon trees.

It was partly the legendary story telling from Arabia that wound a veil of mystery around the Spice Trade so that even today it conjures up images of romance in one’s mind, the scholars will tell you so and draw reference to such works as A Thousand and One Nights.  Or is it just the romance and mystery of the plants themselves? Because spices not only smell good, they are good for you as well.In any case, the Age of Discovery ripped the veil of mystery from the Malabar Coast and the new colonisers set sail towards the Spice Islands. Portugal arrived first. Vasco de Gama’s discovery of an alternative route to India heralded in a new trader in Indian Spices and for a time Portugal controlled the trade through trade agreements, but they were nervous and justifiably so.  Already the Dutch and the English were waiting just offshore with empty ships and pockets of gold that they were more than prepared to exchange for the spices of India and beyond.

Spices were at that time in Europe used for more than just food, they were strewn across floors to make them smell sweet, they were used to preserve food and rapidly became a symbol of wealth, In fact at times, it doubled as currency in places like Venice where tax payments were accepted in pepper and in Paris where one

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