Pepper in Britain After the Romans
The use of pepper in Britain didn’t cease with the fall of the Roman Empire, though it was enormously valuable. Spices (at least imported ones) generally seem to have become scarcer in Britain after the Roman era.
The Venerable Bede shared his pepper and incense on his deathbed in 735.23 According to Aldhelm (Anglo-Saxon abbot of Malmesbury Abbey, d. 709), peppered broths were delicacies.24 By the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, the court and large households seemed to have secured sources of pepper. Pepperers were already organised in the eleventh century and the Guild of Pepperers was founded in London in the twelfth century – it was responsible for overseeing the purity of spices and herbs, weighing, importing and wholesaling. Pepper was imported to Britain in large amounts. P. W. Hammond referred to a Venetian state galley brought into London in 1481 with a cargo of citronade, succade and over 2 tons of pepper.25 Pepper was sold at about 1s per lb throughout the Middle Ages. The household book from 1412–13 of the wealthy Acton Hall in Suffolk provides much detail of the food purchased, stored and consumed.26 The steward’s account of Michaelmas 1419 shows that 3lb of pepper was bought from London at the price of 6s 3d (expensive!) among numerous other spices. In 1452–53, the Duke of Buckingham bought 316lb of pepper, among other items – a massive amount!27The world’s largest black pepper producer is now Vietnam, having gone from insignificant production in 1983 to a dominant position at present, with annual production of well over 200,000 tonnes. This followed the liberalisation of trade relations in 1986 and increased global pepper prices. Indonesia is the second largest producer and India the third.
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- Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine native to southern India and its use dates back to the second millennium BCE.
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World history -