![]() The Dutch formed the Dutch East India Company, but they were the greediest of the lot, and it was only when the British and the French entered the fray and formed their own East India Companies that the price of pepper finally came down. The Portuguese were the first to take over when Vasco da Gama found a route to the west coast of India via South Africa, but the Portuguese merchants were equally greedy and didn’t offer Europeans cheaper prices. At one point over 275,000 tons were consumed by Europeans, until the Venetians were shortsighted enough to increase the price too much, forcing their customers to find other ways of importing it. Venetian merchants controlled the trade for centuries. When the Visigoths threatened Rome during the decline, Romans paid them with pepper, among other commodities.Then when Rome fell, pepper exports to the rest of Europe came to a halt, and it wasn’t until the Crusaders opened up new trade routes to deal with the demand that pepper regained its popularity in Europe pretty quickly.Ĭhefs were thrilled, and merchants and traders had to find ways to satisfy the market. Attila the Hun demanded 1.6 tons of the stuff in 408 A.D. A famous spice market was held on the Via Piperatica (Pepper Street), and it was probably from this market that pepper found its way to Northern Europe as the Empire grew. The Greeks continued to use pepper for medicinal purposes only (with Hippocrates’ blessing), and the Romans obeyed their palates, using every opportunity to include it in their recipes. Exotic spices became commonplace in Roman cuisine, but pepper was, without a doubt, the most common. Roman traders quickly learned from him and, since they had the backing of the powerful Roman Empire, soon became India’s biggest customers. In 150 B.C., the Greek sailor Hippalus discovered how to use the monsoon winds to his advantage and was able to cut the trips to India down from two years to one year. But then Alexander arrived on the scene, trounced everyone he laid eyes on, and took over trading with the East. Today it also grows in Thailand, Vietnam, China and Sri Lanka.Nomadic Arabian tradesmen introduced pepper, with other spices, to the Phoenicians, who controlled the spice trade in the Western World millennia ago.Įventually, the Arabs ousted the Phoenicians so that they could monopolize the spice route and increase their profits. Two thousand years ago, pepper reached Southeast Asia, and it has been grown in Malaysia and Indonesia since that time. Egyptians also used the spice in mummification rituals as early as the 1200s B.C. Black pepper originated in the monsoon forests of the Malabar Coast in southwestern India in prehistoric times it has been used in Indian cooking for over 4,000 years.
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