Western Civilization

IMAGES OF EVERYDAY LIFE

Spices and World Trade

PEPPER,CINNAMON,NUTMEG, and other spices from the

East had long been a part of European life. The top

right illustration from a fifteenth-century French

manuscript shows the harvesting of pepper in Malabar,

India. Europeans’ interest in finding a direct route to

the Spice Islands intensified after the fall of

Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, causing

a thirtyfold increase in the price for pepper. As evident

from the number of available spices in the

spice seller’s shop in the Venetian fresco on

the bottom right, Venetians played a

dominant role in the spice trade via

Constantinople. However, it was Vasco da

Gama’s success in locating a route to the

East by sailing around Africa that shifted

much of the control over the spice trade

into Portuguese hands. Following the

establishment in 1518 of a fort in Ceylon,

the center of cinnamon production, the

Portuguese were able to dominate Europe’s

cinnamon trade. The illustration to the left

shows a portrait of da Gama from around 1600. The

artist depicted the explorer holding a large stick of

cinnamon in his right hand, an indication of the

significance of the spice to his legacy and its role in his

expeditions. Without the desire for spices, men such as

da Gama and Christopher Columbus might not have

ventured around Africa or across the Atlantic Ocean,

thereby opening and forever altering European trade.

Marine Museum, Lisbon//Gianni Dagli Orti/The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY

Bibliothe

`que Nationale, Paris/Archives Charmet/The Bridgeman Art Library

Castello d’Issogne, Val d’Aosta, Italy//Scala/Art Resource, NY

332 Chapter 14 Europe and the World: New Encounters, 1500–1800

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