Food is an integral part of any culture, and other than physical security and comfort, most civilizations in history were built around the need to provide a steady nutritional sustenance to the population. While historical accounts tend to explain the expansion of empires (including the discovery of the New World) as achievements of exploration, many of the explorers were driven by the sole purpose of own profit. Food was easily one of the most important trade goods, which in turn, shaped the subsequent relationships that emerged among nations. Perhaps, none was more important between 3000 BCE and 1500 CE than spice. This paper argues that the food production technology shaped the nature of human civilizations and their respective power, the subsequent commercial relationships and perhaps most importantly, the course of modern history.
The earliest human civilizations arose following the discovery of technology to domesticate wild animals and cultivate food crops. Hunting and gathering had necessitated that humans were constantly moving in search of better supplies of animals and food plants, which in turn rendered it unnecessary to build permanent shelters. Food cultivation allowed sedentary lifestyles, while surplus food production allowed trade and concentrating of power by different civilizations. As early as 3000 BCE, the development of the technology to produce food allowed humans to abandon the constant need to mood in search of food, and thus settle down in settlements. This is invariably the basis of civilizations including the Sumerian civilization, the Old Babylonian civilization, the Middle as well as the New Assyrian civilization and the New Babylonian Empire. The Egyptian civilization and power was easily traceable to its ability to meet its food and trade needs due to the abundance of River Nile, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean. In fact, the earliest maritime trading and trade routes dating back to about two millennia, may have been primarily been driven by food. The main trading commodity was spice. Indeed, with advancements in food production, civilizations staked their power on the successful production of one or two commodities, with silk, spice and other food products being the most important, because of the demand of these commodities across the world.
The role of spice in shaping global trade and other links among empires and far-flung territories is impossible to over-emphasize. Most spices were thought to, or had medicinal properties, which is why they were used as both condiments and medicines throughout the Middle Ages. Further, medieval recipes involved a combination of culinary and medical lore that was necessary to balance the food’s humeral value and disease prevention. The majority of spices were dry and hot, effectively rendering them valuable as ingredients in sauces, because they could counteract the wet and moist properties in meat and fish. Such was the importance of spices that today, upwards of 100 medieval cookbooks that survive today use it as a key ingredient in foods. One such cookbook called Libre del Coch of Master Robert, which was written by the King of Naples, required spices for all meals.
Between the third and second centuries, the Incense Trade Route emerged out of the trade for East Asian and Arabian goods. The key trade products that were traded on these routes include frankincense that was an aromatic resin that was used both as a perfume and for religious purposes. Incense routes were important especially to Egypt (which demanded these products for variety of reasons including preserving food and embalming the dead), which in part explains the reason why the incense route went across the Red Sea. The emergence of the Pre-Columbian Trade route by the end of the First Millennium between the Andean and the Mesoamerican regions also served to integrate the two regions into the global trading system, once against, the main motivation being food. Long trading merchants brought precious metals, spice and salt in exchange for herbal products and agricultural produce.
The commercialization of spices across Eurasia saw the rise and flourishing of many trade centers across the region, including maritime trading states of Axum (North Africa), Venice and the ottoman Empire. The supply of spice was dependent on ancient trade linkages between Europe and Southeast Asia, which is why strong maritime trade emerged, and commercial activities followed. During the earliest stages, the trade was dominated by Muslim merchants, but as the demand for the same grew westwards, the center of power shifted from Muslim to European traders. Food also underlined the Spice Routes that characterized the trade between Greco-Romania world and India as a major trading product. This trade route even overshadowed the Silk Road.
The commercial links enjoyed by Indian merchants to South East Asia were extremely important to Persia and Arabia especially before the end of the eighth century, not least because they provided crucial spices that were the stock in trade for Arabians with Africa and the Western World. Indonesian spices were shipped to Arabia through Sri Lanka and India, before being conveyed to both Africa and Europe. It is this spice trade that drew European explorers like Vasco da Gama and Columbus to seek to create ways to supply the products to their home countries at an accessible price and ensure that the spices were constantly available. The high prices of spices, unreliable supply and exotic origins triggered efforts to explore them further, which in turn required that European nations created military, commercial and political networks to achieve this end, which in turn bred colonialism.
The power shifted from South East Asia with the rapid developments in food production technology, military power and naval capacity transport trade crops, which gave more power to the west. Large scale cultivation of food products and the generally change in food tastes that saw western populations prefer starchy foods, sugar and other such food products also served to drive this shift in power from the East to the West. In fact, the high cost of products such as spice, salt, and silk ensured that they were only affordable to the nobility and wealthy classes, as against the majority of the population. Sugar, tea, coffee and chocolate also served to change global civilization and trade, which while it originates in various parts of the world, became popular in the west and thus became more important in these countries.
Food forms the most important factors behind great human civilizations and commercial relationships that have shaped past and present human civilizations. Supply and demand relationships determined the power of different countries and civilizations, which in turn influenced the world as is today. Spice trade was by far the most important of food products. Despite the fact that it did not have any nutritional value, its importance in flavoring, preserving food and even the dead, made it an important commodity of trade. With time, the developments in food production technology, naval power and tastes in food changed the demand for spice, in preference for emergent food products such as sugar, coffee, tea and chocolate, which once again, changed the global power balance among different global powers. European empires thrived by controlling the trading routes for important commodities such as spice, silk and precious metals, while producer empires such as China and Indonesia thrived by producing the important food crops.
Works Cited
Claxton, Meryvn. "Culture, Food, and Identity Sixth in a Series on Culture and Development." (2010): http://www.normangirvan.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/culturefood-and-identity-6.pdf.
Freedman, Paul. Spices: How the Search for Flavors Influenced Our World . 11 March 2003. http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/spices-how-search-flavors-influenced-our-world. 15 Dec 2014.
Silk Routes. Trade History of the Silk Road, Spice & Incense Routes. 2007. 15 Dec 2014. <http://www.silkroutes.net/SilkSpiceIncenseRoutes.htm>.
