Spices in the Indian Ocean World

Description

By turns exotic, valuable and of cardinal importance in the development of world trade, spices are today a mundane accessory in any well-equipped kitchen; in the 15th-18th centuries the spice trade from the Indian Ocean to markets all over the world was a major economic enterprise. Setting the scene with extracts from Garcia da Orta's "Colloquies on the simples and drugs of India", this collection reviews trade in a wide variety of spices, exploring merchant organization, transport and marketing as well as detailing the quantitative evidence on the fluctuations in spice trade. The evidence and historical debates concerning the 16th-century revival of the Mediterranean and Red Sea spice trade at this time, are fully represented here.

M. N. Pearson, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia Garcia da Orta, Walter J. Fischel, E. Ashtor, Frederic C.Lane, Vitorino Magalhaes Godinho, Frederic C. Lane, Niels Steensgaard, C.H.H. Wake, Jan Kieniewicz, Jan Kieniewicz, C. R. Boxer, John Bastin; Om Prakash, Peter Musgrave.

'European and Non-European Societies and Christianity and Missions along with the other volumes in An Expanding World should become a standard collection for any academic library. The invaluable bibliography, the variety of themes, and the historical problems will engage students of all levels, undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral, in many aspects of early modern and world history for years to come.' Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. XXX, No. 1