Spice Prices

The spice prices chart (Figure 26) illustrates several interesting phenomena. Firstly, availability of spices in the Thorold Rogers dataset: cinnamon is scarce before 1430 and nutmeg doesn’t appear in these records until 1554.⁴⁹ Cloves and mace were available throughout the period, so nutmeg scarcity must be due to lack of popularity in the period up to the 1550s – this is confirmed by extreme scarcity in contemporary English recipes, though several instances are recorded in continental Europe.

Secondly, the relative cost of these spices follows a consistent pattern: black pepper is always more or less affordable and is generally the cheapest of the five under review. Supply was good and, due to EIC authority in India, it was never really constrained. Interestingly, European pepper consumption increased dramatically following the price falls of the early 1600s.⁵⁰ Mace is almost always the most expensive of these spices. It is curious to see its widespread use in medieval times (for those who could afford it) – the bitter, pungent and aromatic flavour was popular in savoury dishes. Cloves and cinnamon had broadly similar prices and were available throughout the period. Before 1400, cloves were priced in a similar manner to mace, or were even more expensive.

Thirdly, and most importantly, is the movement of price over time, which was mainly a function of major geopolitical events, starting with the fall of Byzantium. Portuguese control of the spice trade in India and Southeast Asia from the early 1500s corresponded to a large increase in prices compared with the previous century that lasted for about 100 years. Other contributory causes of the price increase were the Portuguese capture of Hormuz in 1515 and the Turkish seizure of Egypt in 1516–17 (resulting in difficulties in transporting spices through the Red Sea route). Portuguese authority declined rapidly with the appearance of the English and the Dutch at the start of the seventeenth century. The monopoly was broken and prices fell sharply, but not for long. The Dutch quickly usurped the Portuguese in most of Southeast Asia and shut the English out from trade in the Moluccas, with the consequence of another sharp rise in prices from a different monopoly.