Dimensions
129 x 198 x 28mm
A history of the trade that controlled the world and left an indelible impression on our tastebuds; a sweeping story of avarice, ingenuity, and exploration, spanning the globe and the centuries in its epic reconstruction of this magnificent obsession.
Spices: for centuries the staple of cuisine, remedies and ritual, they have commanded the highest of prices. To this day, saffron is, per ounce, one of the most expensive commodities in existence. In the quest to acquire spices, fortunes have been made and lost, empires built and destroyed, and new worlds discovered. Astoundingly, in the seventeenth century, more people died for the sake of cloves than in all the European dynastic wars of the period.
The story of the spice trade dates thousands of years before this, though. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs depict a merchant fleet sailing south to the Horn of Africa and returning triumphantly with a priceless cargo of cinnamon. Only the story of mankind's infatuation with precious metals can rival the story of spice in scope; and only the history of silver and gold rivals that of spice for its improbable and extraordinary combination of discovery and conquest, heroism and savagery, greed and violence.
