The Spice Trade & the Age of

Exploration
Highlight the important points as you are reading the article.

by Mark Cartwright
published on 09 June 2021

One of the major motivating factors in the European Age of Exploration was the search for direct
access to the highly lucrative Eastern spice trade. In the 15th century, spices came to Europe via
the Middle East land and sea routes, and spices were in huge demand both for food dishes and for
use in medicines. The problem was how to access this market by sea. Accordingly, explorers like
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) and Vasco da Gama (c. 1469-1524) were sent to find a maritime
route from Europe to Asia. To the west, Columbus found a new continent in his way, but to the
south, da Gama did round the Cape of Good Hope, sail up the coast of East Africa, and cross the
Indian Ocean to reach India. From 1500 onwards, first Portugal, and then other European powers,
attempted to control the spice trade, the ports which marketed spices, and eventually the
territories which grew them.

Portuguese Carrack Ships

Unknown Artist (Public Domain)

The Spice of Life

In the medieval and early modern periods, ‘spice’ was a term liberally applied to all kinds of exotic
natural products from pepper to sugar, herbs to animal secretions. Spices had been imported from
the East into Europe since antiquity, and Europeans had developed a definite liking for them. Part
of the attraction was the flavour they gave dishes, although the long-held view they were primarily
used to disguise the taste of bad meat is incorrect. Another attraction was their very rarity, making
them a fashionable addition to any table and a real status symbol for the wealthy. Spices were used
to add flavour not only to sauces but also wines; they were even crystallised and eaten on their own
as sweets.
Valuable spices used in food preparation across they could get it. Spices, despite their cost, were
Europe included pepper, ginger, cloves, used in great quantities. Sacks of spices were
nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, saffron, anise, required for royal banquets and weddings, and
zedoary, cumin, and cloves. Although most of we know, for example, that in the 15th century,
these were reserved for the tables of the rich, the household of the Duke of Buckingham in
even the poorer classes used pepper whenever England went through two pounds (900
 WAS NOT CERTAIN &
WHERE MERCHANTS MANY TALL
THEMSELVES GOT THEIR TALES DEVELOPED AS TO
EXOTIC SPICES FROM THE ORIGINS OF SPICES.

grammes) of spice every day, mostly pepper and ginger.

Spices had other uses besides their flavour. In the Middle Ages and early modern period, it was
believed that many spices had medicinal value. Firstly, they could be used to purge the body.
Secondly, the idea that a healthy body required a balance of its four core elements or humours was
still prevalent. A healthy diet, therefore, also needed to balance these humours, that is, one's food
should not be too hot or cold, dry or moist. Spices helped put certain foodstuffs into balance. Fish,
for example, was a cold and wet food and so by adding certain spices to fish dishes, these two
characteristics became more balanced.

Spices were burned like incense for their perfume or scattered on floors or even added directly to
the skin. Everywhere from churches to brothels used spices to improve the generally bad odour of
the medieval indoors. The most sought-after and expensive perfumes were frankincense, myrrh,
balsam, sandalwood, and mastic. There was another group of scents that came from animals which
were equally prized. These included secretions from wild cats (civet), beavers (castoreum), and deer
(musk). A third category of aromatic spices was those substances scraped off ancient mummies and
other weird exotica.

Medieval Spice Merchant

Lawrence OP (CC BY-NC-ND)

Spices could also be taken as medicines in their own right and so were crushed and made into
pills, creams, and syrups. Black pepper was considered a good treatment for coughs and asthma, it
could, the chemists claimed, heal superficial skin wounds and even act as an antidote to some
poisons. Cinnamon was thought to help cure fevers, nutmeg was good for flatulence, and warmed
ginger was considered an aphrodisiac. Several strong-scented spices were thought capable of
combatting foul smells, which themselves were thought to cause diseases. For this reason, during
the many waves of the Black Death plague that swept across Europe, people burnt ambergris to
ward off the often fatal disease. Ambergris was a fatty substance, which came from the inside of
whale intestines. Gemstones and semi-precious stones, also being rare and difficult to get hold of,
were often categorised as spices. Certain stones like topaz were thought to ease haemorrhoids,
lapis lazuli was good for malaria, and powdered pearls, mixed with as many expensive spices as
possible, were taken to prevent old age.
The Search for Spices
There were some voices of protest at these beliefs by some medical practitioners, and some
members of the Church were often outspoken in their belief that all this money spent on spices
could be better used elsewhere. Nevertheless, with all of these possible uses and their status as the
must-have luxury good, it is no wonder that some of Europe’s elite began to ponder how they
could get direct access to the spices of the East without paying through the nose to Eastern and
Arab merchants. Where these merchants themselves got their spices from was not certain. Many
tall tales developed as to the origins of spices, but by the 13th century, travellers like Marco Polo
(1254-1324 CE) and missionaries were beginning to improve Europe’s geographical knowledge of
the wider world. India seemed awash with black pepper. Sri Lanka was rich in cinnamon.
Sandalwood came from Timor. China and Japan were getting spices like cloves, nutmeg, and mace
from India, South East Asia, and the Maluku Islands or the Moluccas in what is today Indonesia -
not for nothing were they nicknamed the Spice Islands.

Then, in 1453 came the fall of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire was conquered
by the Ottoman Empire, and so one of the principal land routes for spices into Europe was lost.
This was one more reason for European merchants to find their own access to the spice trade
routes and, if possible, achieve control of their production at the source. European powers like
Spain and Portugal might also be able to deal a severe blow against their rivals in Europe,
particularly the Italian maritime states like Venice and Genoa. There was the added bonus, too,
that by circumventing the Islamic traders who dominated the trade in the spice markets of Aden
and Alexandria, Christendom would not have to give its gold to its number one ideological enemy.
There might even be Christian allies in Asia who were as yet unknown to Europe.

More practically, discovering new agricultural land to grow cereal crops would help reduce trade
deficits. There was, too, the real prospect of acquiring prestige and riches for the European elite
and those mariners who dared sail into the unknown. Finally, the feudal system in Europe was
degenerating as land was parcelled out in ever-smaller pieces to generation after generation of
sons. Many lords simply did not know what to do with their third or fourths sons and sending
them to foreign lands to make their fortune was a happy solution for both parties.
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There were then, economic, political, and religious motives for finding a sea route from Europe to
Asia. With backing from the Crown and Church, as well as private investors who dreamed of huge
returns, explorers set sail for unknown horizons.

Portuguese Colonial Empire in the Age of Exploration

Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-SA)
A Maritime Route to Asia
The Eastern spice trade had been going on since antiquity. Prior to the 16th century, spices came
over land and sea routes from the East, up the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, across Egypt or
Arabia, and into the Mediterranean. The Silk Routes from China through Eurasia was another way
spices entered into European markets. As the historian M.N. Pearson summarises, the costs
required to get spices to Europe using the traditional Middle East routes were very high indeed:

…the price of a kilo of pepper as it changed hands was enormous - costing 1 or

2 grammes of silver at the production point, it was 10 to 14 in Alexandria, 14 to
18 in Venice, and 20 to 30 in the consumer countries of Europe. (41)

Riches could be won, then, if the Europeans could bypass the established routes and meet the
ever-rising demand for spices in Europe. In order to achieve this, a maritime route to Asia had to
be found.
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In 1492, Christopher Columbus thought he could find it by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean
but he only succeeded in finding another landmass in his way: the Americas. The Portuguese
believed they could find Asia by sailing around the African continent. In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias
sailed down the coast of West Africa and made the first voyage around the Cape of Good Hope, the
southern tip of the African continent (now South Africa). He was followed by Vasco da Gama who,
in 1497-9, also rounded the Cape but then sailed on up the coast of East Africa and crossed the
Indian ocean to reach Calicut (now Kozhikode) on the Malabar Coast of southern India. Finally, the
Europeans had found a direct maritime route to the riches of the East. From the Malabar Coast of
India, European ships could then sail further East to the Spice Islands and South East Asia. A route
was opened up by Francisco Serrão, who sailed to the Spice Islands in 1512, and Ferdinand
Magellan (1480-1521) when he made the first circumnavigation of the globe in 1519-22 in the
service of Spain.

Vasco da Gama Arriving at Calicut, India

Roque Gameiro (Public Domain)

Portuguese Colonization
Getting geographical access to the spice trade was one thing, muscling in on the trade itself was
quite another. The first and biggest problem for the Portuguese in their trading ambitions in the
East was that they did not really possess any goods the Indian or Muslim traders desired. Many
rulers were already immensely rich, and they were loath to make any changes to a regional trade
network that was working extremely well and, more importantly for everyone, peacefully. The
Portuguese decided to use the one thing they had in their favour: superiority in weapons and
ships. Indian rulers and some Arab traders did have some cannons, but these were not of the same
quality as the European ones, and more significantly, trade ships in the Indian Ocean were built
for cargo and speed, not for naval warfare. The Europeans, in contrast, had been fighting sea
battles for some time.

The solution was simple, then: take over the

trade network by force and establish a monopoly
on the spice trade not only in terms of Asia with LBS) OF PEPPER COULD
Europe but also within Asia, too. Spices could be
acquired from spice growers as cheaply as BE BOUGHT FOR SIX
possible for relatively low-value goods like CRUZADOS & SOLD IN
cotton cloth, dry foodstuffs, and copper, and
then sold in Europe for as much as possible. EUROPE FOR AT LEAST 20
Within Asia, spices could be traded from one CRUZADOS.
port to another and exchanged for precious
goods like gold, silver, gems, pearls, and fine
textiles.

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ONE QUINTAL (100 KG/220

Accordingly, more and more warships were sent around the Cape of Good Hope, and forts were
built everywhere, starting with Portuguese Cochin (Kochi) in India in 1503 and eventually
spreading to Japan. Rival ships were blasted out of the water and uncooperative towns were given a
barrage of broadsides. Goods were confiscated and traders pressured into favourable deals.
Undeterred by the immensity of the geographical area the Portuguese would have to patrol, King
Manuel I of Portugal (r. 1495-1521) declared a royal monopoly on the spice trade. A viceroy of India
was appointed in 1505, even though the Portuguese had no real territorial aims beyond controlling
coastal trading centres. Portuguese Goa was established in 1510 on the west coast of India, and
within 20 years it became the capital of Portuguese India. In 1511 Malacca in Malaysia was taken
over. Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf followed in 1515, and a fort was established at
Colombo in Sri Lanka in 1518.

The Royal Monopoly

Enforcing a monopoly on the spice trade across one-third of the globe was practically impossible
but the Portuguese had a very good stab at it. Besides the use of cannons as mentioned earlier,
administrative controls were put in place. First, any private trader - European or otherwise -
caught with a cargo of spices was arrested, his wares and ship confiscated. Muslim traders fared the
worst and were often executed. After it was realised this policy was impossible to enforce
everywhere, some local traders were permitted to trade spices in limited quantities, but often only
one, most commonly pepper. Crews of European ships were permitted to take quantities of spices
as a substitute for pay (a small sackful could buy them a house back home).

Another way to control the spice trade, and that in other goods, was to only permit ships to visit
certain ports if they had a royal license. In short, the seas were no longer free. Even ships trading
goods other than spices had to travel with a Portuguese-issued passport or cartaz, and if they did
not, the cargo and ship were confiscated and the crew imprisoned or worse. In addition to the
cartaz, ships had to pay customs duties at their port of call. Yet another method to extract duties
was to oblige all ships to sail in Portuguese-protected convoys, the cafilas. Pirates were a threat in
the Indian Ocean and beyond, but the real purpose was to ensure all trading ships stopped at a
Portuguese-controlled port where they would have to pay duties (plus leave a cash deposit
guaranteeing they returned to make a second payment).

In these various ways, customs duties came to account for some 60% of the entire Portuguese
revenue in the East. In addition, profits were, just as had been hoped, made from the spices
themselves. The Portuguese could now buy the spices at the source. For example, one quintal (100
kg/220 lbs) of pepper could be bought for 6 cruzados (a gold coin of the period) and sold in Europe
for at least 20 cruzados. There were transport costs and the expense of maintaining patrol ships and
forts but, all in all, the Portuguese could make a very handsome 90% profit on their investment.
Further, the more spices that were imported, the lower the overall costs. The Portuguese desire to
buy and control spices became insatiable.

The attempt to control the spice trade had other consequences besides those already mentioned.
The trade network was shifted to new areas so that some established centres like Cochin went into
decline and others like Goa rose. Missionaries spread the Christian faith. Plants and animals were
introduced to new places, often causing unforeseen repercussions in habitat and upsetting the
balance of local ecological systems. Diseases spread in all directions to find new victims.

The Port of Calicut in 1572

Unknown Artist (Public Domain)

The Opening Up of Asia

The Portuguese had more or less established a monopoly on the spice trade in Europe, but their
dominance in Asia was short-lived. Asian merchants avoided the Europeans whenever possible
and carried on with their duty-free trade. It is important to note that Europe accounted for only
around one-quarter of the global trade in spices. Many Portuguese officials were themselves
corrupt and traded without paying the Crown its slice of income. The Middle East land and sea
routes to transport spices, never entirely replaced by the Cape of Good Hope route, began to
prosper again in the second half of the 16th century thanks to the ever-increasing demand for
spices in Europe.

Other European nations soon got wind of the riches available to those with direct access to the
spices. Between 1577 and 1580, the Englishman Francis Drake (c. 1540-1596 CE) made his
circumnavigation of the world which included a stop off at the Spice Islands to take a cargo of
cloves. The first to really challenge the Portuguese, though, were the Dutch who, from 1596, had
no qualms about attacking forts at Portuguese centres, which were poorly garrisoned and which
often suffered from a lack of upkeep. The territories involved were so large, that the Portuguese
could not patrol even a small fraction of them. The Dutch took direct control of the Spice Islands
and captured Malacca (1641), Colombo (1656), and Cochin (1663). By controlling the source of the
spices, the Dutch could now impose their own terms on the global spice trade and import to
Europe three times the quantities of spices the Portuguese could transport. Meanwhile, the
Persians, with English assistance, took over Hormuz in 1622. The Hindu Marathas were winning
great victories in southern India and threatening Portuguese centres there. The Gujarati traders
were dominating the Bay of Bengal trade. In short, everybody loved spices and the wealth they
brought.
Even more significantly, the European nations were now adapting their foreign policies. It was no
longer a case of exploration and discovery to establish a handful of coastal trade centres.
Colonization was now about holding territory, conquering indigenous peoples, and resettling
Europeans. Trading companies were set up by the Dutch and English which allowed for much
more efficient acquisition and distribution of goods. Sugar cane, cotton, tea, opium, gold,
diamonds, and slaves would take the place of spices in the world economy as the European powers
raced to carve up the world and build an empire. The drive to control the spice trade, then, had
opened up the world, but it was to become a much more violent and unstable one in the centuries
to follow.

Bibliography
Bergreen, Laurence. Over the Edge of the World Updated Edition. William Morrow Paperbacks,
2019. Cliff, Nigel. The Last Crusade. Harper Perennial, 2012.

Disney, A. R. A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Disney, A. R. A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press,
2009. Pearson, M. N. NCHI. Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Russell-Wood, A. J.R. The Portuguese Empire, 1415-1808. JHUP, 1998.

About the Author

Mark Cartwright
Mark is a full-time author, researcher, historian, and editor. Special interests include art,
architecture, and discovering the ideas that all civilizations share. He holds an MA in Political
Philosophy and is the WHE Publishing Director.

Cite This Work

APA Style
Cartwright, M. (2021, June 09). The Spice Trade & the Age of Exploration. World History
Encyclopedia. Retrieved from
https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1777/the-spice-trade--the-age-of-exploration/

Chicago Style
Cartwright, Mark. "The Spice Trade & the Age of Exploration." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified
June 09, 2021. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1777/the-spice-trade--the-age-of-exploration/.

MLA Style
Cartwright, Mark. "The Spice Trade & the Age of Exploration." World History Encyclopedia. World History
Encyclopedia, 09 Jun 2021. Web. 23 May 2023.

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