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n the transition from the 15th to the 16th century, the world experienced a period of radical change with what historians have come to call the "age of discovery." Equipped in small shells and armed only with their courage and thirst for glory, a small handful of what we would today call "venture capitalists," ventured beyond the limits of the known world. For what reasons? The chronicle of Pedro Mártir (1530) points to the will to broaden the horizons of the Christian religion, pearls, gold in unimaginable quantities, and spices. This is also one of the questions that the Australian historian Jack Turner tries to answer in a wonderful book Spice: The History of a Temptation (Acantilado, 2018).
In it, Turner dissects the reasons why, for citizens of the Middle Ages, spices constituted a basic necessity and what was behind the formation of the first empires, similar to how oil largely determines international politics today. The book puts into perspective the world before the consolidation of the first European empires, where, unlike today, many products had a specific origin and their acquisition depended exclusively on the control of these origins.
At the beginning of the 14th century, the Florentine merchant Francesco Balduccio Pegolotti wrote a guide that included up to 188 different spices (then products such as oranges, almonds, or sugar were included) cultivated from Lisbon to Beijing. The world before the Renaissance was dominated by superstitions and religiosity, often closely linked to spices for their aromatic properties (today incense still necessarily evokes Christian churches) and exotic flavors. Spices were associated with virtues related to health, influence over emotions, and even the property of awakening desire (which is why they were often considered dangerous), in addition to other more mundane characteristics such as the ability to camouflage bad odors from people and food. Turner points out how spices, present in universal literature since the biblical "you are the salt of the earth," had in the pre-modern world an aura of mysticism and desire that, coupled with their very limited and difficult-to-access supply, made them tremendously demanded and valuable.
It was precisely the great value of these small products that galvanized much of the effort and energy to seek new trade routes to the East Indies, rich in spices, and which led to the discovery of America and the formation of the first Empires. The Moluccas, for example, one of the few places where cloves were cultivated, was an enclave whose dominion was as coveted as many regions of the Middle East are today. To a certain extent, the author points out, the age of discoveries was a direct consequence of the race for spices. When Columbus tried to convince his investors to finance his ambitious enterprise of reaching the Indies by the West, he not only promised an El Dorado, above all he promised an exciting El Picante. Much of the initial frustrations of his first voyages came from not finding the spices they were looking for, unique to the East Indies, unknown in the New World.
These new empires will be the basis from which the first great globalizing wave of the world will advance, where spices will be one of the most coveted goods; ginger or pepper will become the first products to be everywhere, as is the case today with Coca-Cola or the iPhone.
The triumph of the spice trade, controlled by the Spanish and Portuguese first, then by the Dutch and British, will die from its own success. As Western powers consolidated their overseas dominions and efficiency in the operations of the companies responsible for their trade improved, it caused the previously exotic spices – the further their origin, the more valuable they were – to become a normal part of the European economic landscape, which reduced their interest and price. To this drop in interest, we must add the effect that the scientific and humanist revolution of the Renaissance will have on reducing the mysticism that for centuries presided over the lives of Europeans.
Turner has written a delightful book that sheds light on the important hinge period between the High Middle Ages and the launch of modernity, delving into the primitive history of globalization initiated by the first Spanish discoverers with the temptation of spices.
Images: 1. Cinnamon. Plate extracted from the book "Spices, Their Nature And Growth". McCormin & Company, 1915. 2. Nutmeg. Plate extracted from the book "Spices, Their Nature And Growth". McCormin & Company, 1915. 3. Ginger. Plate extracted from the book "Spices, Their Nature And Growth". McCormin & Company, 1915.