The appeal of spices lies in their strong flavours, aromas and colours.
In the wild, these factors attract pollinators or defend the plant against predators, but for humans over the last four millennia, or perhaps longer, spices have been sought to add flavour and exoticism to bland and ordinary diets.1 Many spices are restricted to exotic tropical climates, while others thrive in warm Mediterranean settings; they have all promised the hint of something special and unattainable, or only attainable with great difficulty and expense.
In the classical Greek era, spices and herbs were sought after, acquired and studied primarily for their medicinal benefits, and this gradually evolved into the application to cuisine. So highly valued were spices from very early times, the so-called ‘Spice Trade’ developed, with dynamic networks that spanned South Asia to the Mediterranean from the late centuries BCE.2 By the first century CE, the demand for spices as seasonings and flavourings in Roman society was huge, and vast sums of money were spent on large fleets importing black pepper from southern India via the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. But it wasn’t only pepper they wanted: the kitchens of the upper echelons of Roman society were every bit as sophisticated as modern kitchens in their use of a huge variety of seasonings and condiments.The nutritional value of spice is modest because of the tiny amounts used for seasoning food, so for millennia the demand for spice has been as a luxury commodity. The practicalities of importing spices from the East were a daunting and dangerous task, whether by sailing ships across the Indian Ocean – a round journey of many months – or by caravan overland along the myriad routings of the Silk Road or other trade routes.
But the continuing demand for spices always outweighed the risks. After the fall of the western Roman Empire, Arab and Byzantine traders ensured the continuing supply of spices to the West.
The sources of the more exotic spices like nutmeg, mace and cloves were jealously guarded, and it wasn’t until the early sixteenth century that the Portuguese became the first westerners to set foot on the remote Banda Islands, which were the only source of nutmeg. A century later, nutmeg commanded fabulous prices: 10lb of the spice could be bought for less than a penny in Banda and sold in London for £2 10s.3 Vast fortunes were made by those fortunate to return home from the dangerous journeys, but the trade attracted violent competition between Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and English, and many lives were lost to weather, shipwreck, war and disease. The search for spices in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, allied with political ambition, had led to Columbus’ discovery of America (and by chance finding chili in Cuba and Hispaniola), Vasco da Gama’s proving of the route to India around the coast of Africa, and Magellan’s discovery of the western route to the Spice Islands. All of these incredible achievements had been driven by the huge potential rewards of the strong-flavoured little spices that were so much in demand in Europe.