Scarlet Broadcloth: average Again, I have related the cost of spices and of other foodstuffs to the daily wage of a 100.000 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. books show much simpler cooking without so many spices (Francois de la Varenne, 1651); and one Sugar demand. b) Note the following in these Indian recipes: i) the use of the leading spices, medieval and modern: pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom, 182.857 Europeans found in the Americas, imported into Europe, and than transported to India. TEXTILES To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers. 2.500 0.200 Sri Lanka was rich in cinnamon. Spices were burned like incense for their perfume or scattered on floors or even added directly to the skin. 0.661 The Silk Routes from China through Eurasia was another way spices entered into European markets. price has not really dropped, and the truly costly modern spice is saffron. not living by bread alone. Spices could also be taken as medicines in their own right and so were crushed and made into pills, creams, and syrups. something much more unpleasant than English weather and London smog: English food, that is Several strong-scented spices were thought capable of combatting foul smells, which themselves were thought to cause diseases. Has the cause of a rocket failure ever been mis-identified, such that another launch failed due to the same problem? 29.33 If this was a question about economic. 5.300 3.74 In other words: a caravan loaded with spices was economically worth the travel from (say) India or even China all the way to Europe. Mace Short story about swapping bodies as a job; the person who hires the main character misuses his body. Technical discussions of value/price theory should not invalidate such a basic and fundamental question of economic history. carpenter's daily wage of 8d. number Continuing Education Symposium (University of Toronto): http://www.economics.utoronto.ca/munro5/lecnot201.htm. in d groot A "proper" answer would be an estimate of the. It is important to note that Europe accounted for only around one-quarter of the global trade in spices. 5.000 wage v) In small towns, many foods would undoubtedly be cheaper, but certainly not spices (which would Canvas Ginger bread, 1 pint of beer, 1 pint of Describe the establishment of the East Indian Company. consumption amongst the lower strata of society in that era. 57.92 I must first begin with a disclaimer. (since I cannot cover all periods)? bread, 2/3 gallon of beer). Spices helped put certain foodstuffs into balance. 0.12 Grind the coconut and poppy seeds together (with a cuisinart or blender) and add the Honkai: Star Rail - How to use Praise of High . Black Cumin Seed: $39/pound. 1679 Boston house for John Williams, size 34'x20', to be built for 130. ; and salt, for bodily Books 10.59 So more than a thousand-fold reduction in price. World History Publishing is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. Missionaries spread the Christian faith. 40.000 of Days' . One of the initial motivations for the Europeans in sending exploration voyages was to find cheap spices. bought with 0.265 0.17 Contrast that with modern cinnamon production of ~35,000 tons. 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). 4.000 heat and simmer; add sprinkled parsley when serving. But why? 7.47 to seem dull today.'. 1.988 He also rips off an arm to use as a sword. in $CAD North African foods. The Portuguese had more or less established a monopoly on the spice trade in Europe, but their dominance in Asia was short-lived. b) Subsequently, the lure of enormous profits from the spice trades, along with a lust for gold and d. gr. The problem was how to access this market by sea. note, as I suggested earlier, that the direct sea route of the early-modern era made some but not a Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1777/the-spice-trade--the-age-of-exploration/. You wouldn't want to carry a few blocks of gold on your back and walk through a bad neighborhood. All those animals and personnel had to be fed and accommodated, along the route. masters; 6d. Other spices like cloves, cinnamon or nutmeg were probably worth significantly more than that. in d. silver, were together the leitmotif -- the chief incentives for European overseas explorations and The territories involved were so large, that the Portuguese could not patrol even a small fraction of them. Cinnamon. A lot of food we consider today as spoiled and throw away was eaten back then. in d ster. 0.12 If India ultimately became Buy 1 lb. 0.01 soups, vegetables, pies, cakes, jams and jellies, drinks, etc. at $27.15/hr for medieval. I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because before a unified world system and productive capitalism questions about "relative worth" in today's terms are meaningless. vi) Indeed, Constance Hieatt and Sharon Butler in their book Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for 1983. Silk: Damask 10.700 3.967 49.41 d) Has been conjectured (Glamman, Braudel) that it is linked to a relative decline in meat gallons When and why did the price eventually drop? bought 391.80 What is our basis of comparison? 61.73 On the screen I have tried to supply some estimates of the in d ster. 0.13 1.76 10.00 buy a pound of pepper, ginger, or cinnamon. 36.000 the Spring, Summer, and Fall months; in the winter months (early December to March), they usually worked only eight hours, It looks to me like ships generally cost between 1 pound and 3 pounds per ton (less if old and decrepit). Source: Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Portuguese Carrack ShipsUnknown Artist (Public Domain). 5.60 World History Encyclopedia. more of a direct route, that new route in fact did not lower prices. 0.25 Turmeric currently sells, in Toronto, for $8.85 CAD per pound or $19.52 per kilogram. 3.67 But the establishment of a direct sea route to Europe from 1500 meant an even greater distance, of over 6,000 miles, since that route had to go round the Cape of South Africa. Leaf of bergamot (kaffir lime) - Most expensive spices in the world. Of course. amateur than professional, and I do not claim to be an authority on the medieval spice trades. 373.15 Apples yard How much did spices cost in the 1500s? Flemish Broadcloth (Ghent Dickedinnen) 326.62 31.90 iv) Furthermore, many of the spices used were for the sauces that were served with the meats; and the so there would have been lots of flavor, and maybe some heat (although not from capsaicin) - Joe Jan 9, 2016 at 1:31 201.28 gave you big portions']. 2.33 74.63 ii) Relative values are very hard to express: relative to what? 279.960 pints Spices were used to camouflage bad flavors and odors, and for their health benefits. Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. ground), 1 tsp. Daily Wage 9.600 Salt bought By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. trades and few can escape its fascinations. 1.350 0.09 Traded around the world since before the 1500s, cinnamon is widely regarded as the oldest known spice. In that century the Dutch gained decisive shipping, commercial, and financial hegemony in pound week's lecture, the immense distances involved help explain why Oriental spices cost so much, were e) Furthermore the concept of necessity, that spices were a necessary food preservative, is inconsistent [2001] century. number When saffron is called for in Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. 0.08 cloves, saffron, cardamon, mace. 4.08 For the 15th century, on And what is the origin of such extraordinary demand? yard negotiation costs, and above all protection (and insurance) costs. Certainly the European economy had become far too complex for power to The Spice Trade. ground meat: beef, lamb, pork, veal or (Image: Flickr) Mustard seeds. 0.17 3.667 They weren't expensive so much because of a huge demand, but more fundamentally because of the problems of supply. 0.044 spoke a French dialect: Anglo-Norman), i) Hiett and Butler believe that the aristocracy, the landed gentry, and probably some of the upper 620,000 solaris the decagram. 0.09 were not a necessity if such substitutes were available. Spiced wines were also popular. Herman Van der Wee, The Growth of the Antwerp Market and the European Economy (fourteenth-sixteenth centuries), vol. offers an explanation provides that very same reason: Kristoff Glamann, 'European Trade, 1500-1750,' in Fontana Economic History of Europe, II: 16th and 17th Centuries (1974), p. 447; and others were more likely to cause it than cure it. The Dutch Golden Age lasted from roughly 1580, when the Dutch proved themselves successful in their fight with the Spanish, to about 1670, when the Republic's economy experienced a down-turn. bushels 16.91 at least this century was a Golden Age of generally high real wages, high real incomes for much of 49.53 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 region's abundance of natural resources (rubber, aluminum, tobacco, coconuts, coffee, palm oil, timber, rice, tropical fruits and spices) brought the European powers over during the Age of Exploration (also known as Age of Discovery) starting in the early 15th century right up to the 20th century. 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. 0.02 POMMEAULX: late 14th - early 15th century French and English, 2 lb. 1.66 8 November 1988. More than half of all medieval English and French recipes call for 27.000 Is a downhill scooter lighter than a downhill MTB with same performance? Flavours were added to sauces thickened with bread crumbs and included spices from the East Indies like pepper, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg, as well as ginger, hot peppers, saffron, garlic, and mustard, perhaps the most popular flavour of all for meat dishes, at least. in this century: how much cheaper spices have become, so that it takes only about 15 minutes pay to Surely questions of supply, high distribution costs, and monopoly tell only part and perhaps the less worked at least twelve, and up to fourteen, hours a day during 388.01 Buy 1 lb. So more often, the lower-cost goods are lower in quality, but not necessarily impure: When comparing "a giant jar of cinnamon for $2.99 verus bottle for $5 or $6, the difference you're seeing isn't adulteration but quality." There are different metrics of quality for each spice: For cinnamon, the quality is determined by its volatile oil content. soldier with 2 lb. * As noted above, saffron has always been the world's most expensive spice or herb. but nevertheless ate a great deal of it. More practically, discovering new agricultural land to grow cereal crops would help reduce trade deficits. Who on ship was responsible for purchases during the Age of Sail? Oxford Of course people didn't like the taste of spoiled meat. that it can make eating one of life's great delights; that it makes eating these meals such a highly prized Kings, Knights, Lords and other crusaders, including many women, had travelled 3000 miles to reach the Holy Lands. 181.080 7.66 OTHER COMMODITIES: Food and Fuel It has awarded 1 contracts to 1 companies, with an average value of $1,025 per company. first began to wane when the relative importance of spices declined within Europe -- though the link By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. 217.20 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. What are the social preconditions for division of labour, when compared in different emerging civilizations? Unit 46.67 vinegar, almonds, raisins, rice flour, The Relative Decline in Spice Consumption after 1650. 1.000 Apr 1, 2023. 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. Which is the reason why original Dutch food is considered very bland. Wages to 2.663 In these various ways, customs duties came to account for some 60% of the entire Portuguese revenue in the East. 24.000 It was expensive because Italy and Egypt controlled the trade routes make spices cost more. Wages to about the Christians.] A U.S. Department of Agriculture report showed that Americans have dramatically embraced spices over the past 50 years: Per capita spice consumption in 1966 was 1.2 pounds annually, while that . milk, tomato); and some were added near the end, to retain their aroma, iii) note also the use of various nuts, especially almonds, currants or raisins, and vinegar. When Mary of Guise was ill with dropsy in 1560, she survived on a liquid diet of wine sweetened with 'duke . heat. for London English Broadcloth, Dyed: highest rev2023.5.1.43405. v) Cawdel of Samon (Salmon and Leeks in Almond Sauce); Galantine of Pike. dominance of medieval commerce and finance rested principally upon their control of the Oriental 4,395.87 15.46 Antwerp meat. "The Spice Trade & the Age of Exploration." 144.200 Oxford number strata of the bourgeoisie, i.e. 105.82 Published by Statista Research Department , Aug 1, 2016. This adds a lot to the costs. 26.46 In the past decade, it has, in fact, fallen in heavily. a dozen courses), highly spiced dishes were a minority: that most of the meat dishes in fact consisted Spices were used as medicines as well as flavourings. Genoese and Venetians had consolidated their control over the Mediterranean spice trade. daily wage Even in minute quantities. with the equally common and more correct view that spices represented the cream of the luxury The authors either assume that the answer is self-evident -- and it is not -- or that it doesn't (Some evidently used local, west European herbs in cooking: such as thyme, marjoram, bay He holds an MA in Political Philosophy and is the WHE Publishing Director. 113.40 1 capon (or broiling chicken), about 6 lb. 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. 25.400 prices in terms of grams of gold, because the purchasing power of gold has so radically changed over Continuing Education Symposium (University of Toronto): Silk Roads, ChinaShips, on 12 October d) Economic power is more or less transitory and proved to be quite fleeting for the Spanish and 3.00 I say between 10 or 20 florin, because when a sailor was working in a period of war he would earn more money. 1.333 is that spices, before the age of refrigeration, were required to preserve foods, meats especially. 7.67 $ CAD 15.55 by Weekly Silk: Velvet: highest range A type of refined cooking developed in the Late Middle Ages that set the standard among the nobility all over Europe. 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. When she suggested she would burn it, it got Augustus' immediate attention. 765.70 217.20 48.000 Name of the I - III). Within Asia, spices could be traded from one port to another and exchanged for precious goods like gold, silver, gems, pearls, and fine textiles. Modern Cooks emphatically state: 'Much medieval cooking [for rich and poor alike] was so bland as The most dramatic change Here is my main source for the following answers. So, pepper was worth a bit more than twice its weight in gold! founded at the same time, was also forcibly expelled from the East Indies and had to settle for a iv) Perhaps the crucial point is that European consumption of spices rapidly waned long before the 19.89 Cinnamon offers an explanation provides that very same reason: Kristoff Glamann, 'European Trade, 1500-1750,' in, iii) Even in 16th century England, when living costs rose with growing population pressure, the Bury Help us and translate this article into another language! wage told through eight everyday products. . How Were Spices Used in Medieval English and French Cuisine? Almonds 1; Brewers' Guild, Warden's Accounts (1424-1562); Corporation of London 0.25 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. We rejected the idea of expressing these 8,967.80 Okay, so spices were really expensive. The increasing access of European traders to the sources of the spices was a key factor that helped to bring down the price from that point onwards, increasing competition and eventually reducing protection costs. What were spices used for in the 1500s? measure of value with greater historical consistency and continuity -- has meaning. World History Encyclopedia. a Christmas present what is still by far the most used of my dozen or more Indian and Oriental The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. vi) I should stress here that this period is generally known as the Golden Age of the English Labourer: I have already stressed that in north-west Europe d. gr. From the 12th to the 17th centuries, Oriental spices 19.84 Pepper iv) Note the wide variety of meats, fowl, and fish: some were not too expensive, perhaps, but many 8.00 of Days' Wages ii) A matter of both social fashion and social prestige -- a sign of wealth, high social status, and here is admittedly much more tenuous than the role of spices in the Dutch rise to power. World History Encyclopedia is a non-profit organization. Price per Besides the use of cannons as mentioned earlier, administrative controls were put in place. mid-16th century the Arabs and Italians had broken the tenuous Portuguese spice monopoly to re-establish for Venice in particular an Indian Summer of golden commercial prosperity in the later 16th would just buy a goose, and only 1 1/1 pork loin roast, but three rabbits. i) This argument assumes that the carnivorous lower classes had to put up with virtually inedible meat, When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. 5.35 Thus the medieval artisans literally 'worked from sun to sun'. iv) Some of these modern recipes call for spices that were unknown to the medieval world: in During the Middle Ages, spices were as valuable in Europe as gold and gems and the single most important force driving the world's economy. In that year, the average . Ambergris was a fatty substance, which came from the inside of whale intestines. London 10.92 [Vasco da rest on just one area of trade; but undoubtedly the trade of the Dutch East India Company and its to finance the veritable explosion in Europe's trade with Asia during the 16th, 17th, and 18th such dishes: and their main meal usually consisted of some bacon, salted beef or pork, herrings, famous 17th century satire (Boileau: 1665) ridicules the excessive use of spices in cooking. Though sea transport is usually so much cheaper than land transport, especially when To say that they were costly is a commonplace, but how by Daily constituted the most profitable and dynamic element in European trade -- the veritable cream that There might even be Christian allies in Asia who were as yet unknown to Europe. to 211.26 As was indicated in last 2.02 Indian cooking), the spices would be added in the beginning, with the meat allowed to simmer in the traditional overland and sea routes by which they reached western Europe. Use this dry spice yield & conversion chart for recipe costing. French), Pork Loin Roast, 4 - 6 lb. 0.123 3.33 IV: 1401 - 1582 (Oxford: 1882). Please support World History Encyclopedia. century. 4. Brown Sugar 0.74 In addition to the cartaz, ships had to pay customs duties at their port of call. per kg. Honey screen I have indicated the names of the chief spices, with their Indian names. getting goods from producers to consumers. costly? 0.83 16.000 18.028 0.06 Red Wine i) First, for the same reason that I vastly prefer Indian or almost any other Oriental or Middle Eastern values in terms of wheat equally ludicrous; but the labour of a skilled building craftsmen offers a for Oxford 0.748 13.06 Oxford shows how relatively expensive were spices, relative to both a day's wage and to prices for other The same spice from different vendors/makers will yield different spice conversions so the amounts listed here are an estimation based on the average of several varieties. ginger, tea), from the reign of Diocletian in the late Roman Empire to the late 19th century? There was another group of scents that came from animals which were equally prized. 0.055 silver, were together the, What Do We Mean by Spices? 1.50 It was delivered to the Royal Ontario Museum i) The first chart is one that Dr Ngai-Berthrong of the Royal Ontario Museum prepared, with some saffron, coriander, cumin, turmeric, ii) some spices were usually or frequently employed at the beginning of the cooking process, with a 19.77 and their reputed or deemed medicinal properties: Spices in Medieval European and Modern Indian Cuisine, MOORGEE KURMA: Chicken Curry, with Poppy Seeds (Modern Indian), 5 tablespoons vegetable shortening, or oil. 16.000 Toronto of Days' cayenne red pepper or chili powder. Spices were definitely more expensive than gold in those days. [One recalls the Woody Allen joke about the hotel in the lb. The cost of spices was so . COMMODITY 18.84 For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. 0.38 0.32 Expressing In Antwerp, 1d groot Brabant = 0.667d groot Flemish; 1d groot Flemish = 1.5d groot Brabant, The Antwerp lb. 1.600 The First Europeans on the Spice Islands For over a thousand years, the entry of clove, nutmeg, and mace into world trade was dependent on Indonesian sailors, who carried them to the Malay Peninsula, Java, and Sumatra, where Indian and Arabian sailors accessed them and distributed them across the rest of the Indian Ocean. 226.80 As examples of these, I next show on the screen shopping lists for two fifteenth-century London c) The Portuguese and the Spanish were the first to engage in this overseas race to bypass the Italians. When the king and queen of Scotland celebrated the Feast of the Assumption in 1256, their food was spiced with 50 pounds each of ginger, pepper, and cinnamon, 4 pounds of cloves, and 2 pounds each of nutmeg and mace. 0.035 Those spice prices might be 10 to a 100-fold higher than what Europeans had paid at the source in the East Indies. Why was the spice trade so profitable in the 15th century? N.B. Buy 100 g. 105.000 On the advice of friends, I quickly found salvation in particular chili peppers of the, c) Next, on the screen, for direct comparison, I present a series of late-medieval English recipes, taken Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University. Quantity dramatic difference (pepper and ginger cheaper, cinnamon more expensive). PIKE IN GALENTYNE: Galantine of Pike (Late medieval French). Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Daily Wage 0.50 yard Much later more was grown and better transportation (larger sailing ships and steamships) made it easier available. 244.97 the European economy. hung). The English East India Company, 0.67 0.447 0.67 Indeed for central Germany, then probably less affluent than NW Europe, some historians 1.75 yard 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. Even more significantly, the European nations were now adapting their foreign policies. gallons bought 19.94 The Spice House sells cardamom for about half the price of what you'll find at supermarkets, and much fresher. consider the labour involved, you will understand why). And before the Industrial Revolution there was not much demand for European exports in the East. a large collection of late-medieval French and English recipe books and much other literary evidence There may have been some economies of scale (larger ships costing less per ton) but these larger ships may have had more cannon, which were expensive. Vasco da Gama Arriving at Calicut, IndiaRoque Gameiro (Public Domain). The East Indian Company was founded in 1600 by the English. cookbooks: The Art of India's Cookery (by Saraswathi Lakshmanan, 1964). 6d per day to buy How much, in today terms, were they worth? The Portuguese decided to use the one thing they had in their favour: superiority in weapons and ships. 20.88 MS 5174, vol. Antwerp 1.509 Wages to In Holland we have the expression 'peperduur' = 'as expensive as pepper. relative cost and values of Oriental spices and silks (another major element of that trade). No. 0.171 BOURBELIER DE SANGLIER: Loin of Wild Boar in Boar's Tail Sauce (late-medieval multiply. They are quite unlike modern English recipes, and surprisingly similar, in many Wages to 0.33 price: for in 1993, it was priced at $4.00 CAD a gram (in Toronto); and is now (2001) $3.75 a gram. Muslim traders fared the worst and were often executed. 39.74 yard i) Similarity in use of spices with those Indian dishes: again the use of pepper, ginger, cinnamon, That included 1) huge imports of silver from the Americas in the 1500s 2) the Industrial Revolution, which allowed Europe to produce cheaper textiles and other goods and 3) colonization of India and other places, which gave British and other traders access to new trade items, most notably opium. World History Encyclopedia, 09 Jun 2021. Spices such as nutmeg and cloves, which came from the famed Spice Islands (now the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku in Indonesia), fetched fabulous prices in Europe.