Indonesian spices: Revolutionary Trees – part II

Mike Hillis writes about the revolutionary trees of Indonesia.

There is a very prevalent misunderstanding in the West regarding this powerful medieval appetite for spices. It is generally accepted that spices were used to preserve food. Pepper together with salt, it was said, was the chief means of preservation, of keeping the meat of cattle, slaughtered in the fall, edible throughout the winter. The other spices, according to this explanation, served to make spoiled meat edible again. This is hardly convincing, for spices imported from the Orient were among the most precious substances known in the Middle Ages. That is why they were the prerogative of the upper classes.

To limit their function to food preservation and explain their use solely in these terms would be like calling a bottle of Chateau Margaux a good thirst quencher. Salt served very well as a meat preservative in the Middle Ages; and there were suitable native herbs which were also used by the poorer people to make spoiled meat palatable. Perhaps there are other explanations for the appetite for spices of refined people in the Middle Ages. Medieval Europeans clearly understood that these exotic tastes on their tongues were a symbol of power, prestige, and mystery. People at the time had the wildest notions (most of them highly exaggerated) about these unknown locations from where spices originated. Tales of monsters, heathens, and other fictional beasts filled the imaginations of Europeans for several centuries. The Venetian traders were doing a booming trade with the Arabs that brought the spices overland from India. It was in the Arab traders best interests to continue to perpetuate the exaggerated tales of these wild, savage places. This monopoly had been operating smoothly for several centuries and the last thing the Chinese, Indian, and Arab spice traders wanted to see was the Europeans setting sail with accurate maps of the geographical coordinates of south India and eastern Indonesia. It would be much better to keep those imaginations running wild with fear and certain death for anyone crazy enough to attempt to try to find the islands independently.

By the late 15th century tensions were building quickly between Portugal and Spain. The imagination and obsession to physically locate the “Spice Islands” was escalating into an extremely competitive climate between Lisbon and Madrid. It was quite clear that the obscene wealth that Venice had procured had been obtained by centuries of control over the spice trade flowing into Western Europe. Columbus and his other colleagues had been risking and losing their lives in numerous attempts to find the sea route to the ‘Indies’, in order to break the Venetian monopoly and secure the spice supply. This ‘redistribution’ of the wealth into the hands of their royal investors was indeed a complete obsession that single handedly fueled the Age of Discovery. How did the overwhelming desire to harvest the flowers and nuts of two simple trees make such a huge impact on the course of world history?

Mike Hillis is a writer and anthropologist. He is also the marketing director for Unexplored Adventures, the only dive and eco travel operator based in Maluku province.