Can you imagine taking out a bank loan to buy a box of pepper? The idea is ridiculous today, but centuries ago, spices were more valuable than gold. Early man's desire for spices, and the wealth that came with them, was so encompassing, that his yearning resulted in a mass of world explorations and discovery.

The history of the spice trade is remarkable in that the same spices we can pick up down the street today, at our local grocery store, drove our ancestors to great lengths to secure this most precious of treasures.

Today, spices like saffron, one of our modern world's most expensive spices, can be purchased for under $10. But back then, saffron was so valuable, that a European law was passed regulating the spice's distribution; protecting buyers from saffron that had been cut (altered) with other compounds.

According to historians, man's love of spices has been around for eons. The Astaspice.org site reports that archaeologists have found proof that even primitive man preferred his dinner with a little zip of flavor. The site writer speculates that in 50-thousand BC, a cave man cooking his dinner accidentally got his first taste of spiced food by wrapping meat in leaves to keep the food grit-free, while roasting. And voila, seasoning was born.

Were it not for our ancestor's taste buds, we might all still be sitting on the other side of the ocean. But in a bid to obtain and control the valuable spices of the Orient and India, explorers sailed off in search of new spice suppliers; those searches led them to new worlds like our own continent, North America. The most famous of these explorers, of course, was Christopher Columbus.

Columbus was followed years later, in 1519, by Ferdinand Magellan, whose voyage was so successful, that spices brought back to Spain, by one of his ships, paid for the entire trip.

Europeans so loved the exotic spicy flavors of cardamom, ginger, turmeric, coriander and nutmeg, that enterprising merchants built huge businesses like the Dutch East India Company, established at the beginning of the 17th century. In spite of despicable practices that led to famine and oppression of local peoples in spice-rich areas like Bengal, the entrepreneurs became very wealthy. (www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia /History/British/EAco.html)

Man's desire for spice was also behind the many attempts to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Explorers were funded by companies like the East India Company; companies whose profits were hampered by wars and closed land borders. These enterprising businesses commissioned ships and captains to find an alternate route to spice-rich Asia: the Northwest Passage.

The popularity of spices will probably never wane, but as to the humble plants again becoming the inspiration to push man into further exploration, well, that's not very likely. That is, of course, unless man finds another world, another planet, like our Earth. Then another chapter in the history of the spice trade will begin anew.

Learn more about this author, Sheree Zielke.
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