Spice Trade

The spice trade was the long-running commerce in pepper, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and other aromatics from South and Southeast Asia to Europe, prized for flavor, preservation, and medicine. Controlled through Arab and Venetian intermediaries until Portuguese ships reached India by sea in 1498, it then drove the chartered East India Companies and European expansion into the Indian Ocean. Control of the clove and nutmeg islands of the Moluccas was so valuable that wars were fought over single islands. The trade is a central thread of maritime history.