Between East and West: The Moluccas and the Traffic in Spices Up to the Arrival of EuropeansUp to & including the Age of Discoveries, the wealth of the East was thought in Europe to consist primarily of spices & aromatics. Cloves, nutmeg, mace, & sandalwood all were thought to come from a few small islands in easternmost Indonesia, which no European reached before 1500. Yet supplies of these luxury products were reaching China, India, western Asia, & the Mediterranean lands more than a thousand years earlier. This study of Moluccan spices opens with their natural history & nomenclature, & the discovery of the Islands by Europeans near the opposing (& controversial) limits of Spanish & Portuguese jurisdiction. Donkin traces the expanding interest & long-distance trade in cloves, nutmeg, & sandalwood, first to India & then to the adjacent Arabo-Persian world. The medieval West & China lay on the margins of diffusion, the former in touch with the Levant, the latter with the trading world of South East Asia. |
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Common terms and phrases
al-Biruni Alexandria ancient Arab archipelago aromatic Asian Banda Barbosa Bengal Buddhism Burkill Cambridge camphor candana caryophyllon Chau Ju-kua China Chinese cinnamon clove tree cloves cloves and nutmeg Coedès Cortesão dictionary Dravidian Dutch early eastern Edited and translated eleventh century English Europe Europeans Fa-hsien Ferrand trans fifteenth century Figure Flora fourteenth century fragrans Fu-nan Gujarāti Hakluyt Society History Ibid Indies Indonesia inscriptions island Java Javanese Journal Kālidāsa King language lavanga London mace Malacca Malay peninsula Malaya materia medica medicine medieval merchants Middle Moluccan spices Moluccas Myristica northern nutmeg Oriental Orta Oxford Pāli Paris perfume Periplus Persian Pigafetta Pires ports Portuguese Rāmāyaṇa reference Rockhill Royal Asiatic Society Rumphius sandal sandalwood Sanskrit Santalum album scented Schafer ships South East Asia southern India species Sri Lanka Śri Vijaya Sumatra Tamil Ternate Timor Tomé Pires trade tury Varthema vols voyage West western Wheatley Wolters xviii
Popular passages
Page 177 - Every page of the work is barbed with wit, and will make its way point foremost provides entertainment for the most diverse tastes."— Daily Neva. Drury (Col. H.) The Useful Plants of India, With Notices of their chief value in Commerce, Medicine, and the Arts. By COLONEL HEBER DRURY.
Page 195 - Le Second Livre, Journal ou Comptoir, contenant le vray discours et narration historique du Voyage fait par les Huit navires d'Amsterdam, au mois de Mars 1598, sous la conduite de JAQUES CORNILLE NEC et de WIBRANT de WAHWIC.
Page 14 - In this island also are white mice, exceeding beau-tiful. There also are trees producing cloves, which, when they are in flower, emit an odour so pungent that they kill every man who cometh among them, unless he shut his mouth and nostrils.
Page 179 - RELATIONS DE VOYAGES ET TEXTES GÉOGRAPHIQUES ARABES, PERSANS ET TURKS RELATIFS A L'EXTRÊME-ORIENT DU VIII* AU XVHr1 SIÈCLES.
Page 194 - Histoire Diplomatique du Chevalier Portugais Martin Behaim de Nuremberg avec la description de son globe terrestre par M. Christophe Théophyle de Murr, traduite de Fallemand par le citoyen H. Jansen".
Page 105 - Serta recepturus cum Cesar venit in Urbem, 260 Exultat pompis inclita Roma novis. Ad Petri devenit eques venerabile templum, Quo pater antistes preredimitus erat. Balsama, thus, aloe, miristica, cinnama, nardus 264 Regibus assuetus, ambra modestus odor, Per vicos, per tecta fragrant redolentque per urbem ; Thuris aromatici spirat ubique rogus ; Vestit odora viam mirtus sociata dianthis; 268 Luxuriant croceis lilia iuncta rosis W.
Page 110 - Schulte, Geschichte des mittelalterlichen Handels und Verkehrs zwischen Westdeutschland und Italien, Leipzig, 1900, 2 vols.
Page 17 - ... island are Pagans, and are good people. Their colour is more white than otherwise. Their dress consists of a cotton shirt, and some go clothed in camelots. Some wear red caps. In this island justice is strictly administered, and every year a very great quantity of camphor is shipped, which they say grows there, and which is the gum of a tree. If it be so, I have not seen it, and therefore I do not affirm it.
Page 29 - Te. cddu to rub into a paste ; sb. a beauty spot (of paste). Here the Dravidian word for sandal is quite clearly seen to be native since it is etymologically connected with other words meaning ' to rub into a paste ', and the specific meaning ' sandal ' has developed out of a more general meaning.1 Many similar examples can be quoted.
Page 182 - The Herbal of Apuleius Barbarus; from the early twelfth-century manuscript formerly in the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds (MS. Bodley 130). Described by Robert T.