Podchaser Logo
Home
How Spices Shaped the Modern World

How Spices Shaped the Modern World

Released Monday, 22nd April 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
How Spices Shaped the Modern World

How Spices Shaped the Modern World

How Spices Shaped the Modern World

How Spices Shaped the Modern World

Monday, 22nd April 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
Rate Episode

Episode Transcript

Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.

Use Ctrl + F to search

0:00

Thanks. For listening to the Ancients,

0:02

you can get all of our

0:04

podcast ad free, early access and

0:07

bonus episodes along with hundreds of

0:09

original history documentaries. By subscribing to

0:11

history it had over to History

0:13

hit.com/subscribe. Rarer

0:21

the not, and as valuable

0:23

as precious metals. The economy

0:25

of the only modern world

0:27

was shaped by the pursuit

0:29

of it's single most important

0:31

commodity, spice Transport have zero

0:33

through a network of complex

0:35

trade routes. The exact source

0:37

for many spices remained unknown,

0:39

but all this changed in

0:42

fifteen Eleven with the Portuguese

0:44

discovery of the Malacca is

0:46

the so called Spice Islands.

0:48

The next six decades broad,

0:50

intense. Change from the linking

0:52

of trade routes across oceans to

0:54

the increasing manufacture of merchant ships

0:57

and armaments and the origins of

0:59

the first truly global economy, all

1:01

in the hope of controlling the

1:04

world's most valuable asset. Joining me

1:06

today to talk about the European

1:09

battle for spice and it's enduring

1:11

effects on the world is the

1:13

New York Times best selling author

1:16

Roger Crowley. His latest work of

1:18

compelling narrative history is Spice. The

1:21

sixteenth century contest that shaped the

1:23

modern world. Roderick

1:31

Early. It is a great pleasure to welcome

1:33

you to not just the Tudors. Thank you

1:36

very much is under. It's a great pleasure to be here.

1:38

This. Is an exciting topic. Can you

1:41

take us of the very beginning back

1:43

to the early sixteenth century and give

1:45

us some basics? Were in the world?

1:47

Where the Spice Islands? What were they?

1:49

What was great in there and why

1:51

they were important? The. Spice

1:54

Islands are. in the malaya archipelago

1:56

which is a kind of four thousand

1:58

miles on it's about a cold of

2:00

the world's diameter, a little

2:02

group of islands which are now effectively

2:05

in the Philippines, and the

2:07

critical issue here is that they

2:09

sit on the fault line between

2:12

two species systems. One is that

2:14

of Asia, the other is that

2:16

of Oceana, Australasia. And on

2:18

this fault line, it's like a

2:21

laboratory of evolution. It

2:23

was here that Alfred Wallace, the 19th century

2:25

naturalist, really fleshed out the theory of

2:27

evolution at the same time as Darwin. And

2:31

in the middle of this, there are

2:33

a tiny group of islands called the

2:35

Malakas. And the most extraordinary thing about

2:37

this is that there are five small

2:39

islands, the only places in the world

2:41

where clove grew. A few hundred

2:44

miles south, there's a second group of islands

2:46

called the Bandas, which are the only place

2:48

in the world where nutmeg grew. And if

2:51

you go deep into history, you can find

2:53

spice clove on the banks of the Euphorates,

2:56

possibly because of their rarity value.

2:58

They've always had an incredibly

3:01

vivid presence in the human imagination.

3:05

I think people thought that they

3:07

were analgesics, they were aphrodisiacs, they

3:10

were a kind of a portal to the divine.

3:13

And throughout history,

3:15

it seems odd to us now when we look

3:18

at our spice cabinets, that they have been

3:20

almost the first global commodity. They

3:23

were very handy from that point of

3:25

view. They're lightweight, you can stuff a

3:27

lot of this stuff into a ship, and

3:29

it's reasonably durable. And

3:32

Europe was getting spices in

3:34

the Middle Ages, usually through the

3:36

hands of many Islamic middlemen. Massively

3:39

expensive, they were like a prestige

3:41

item. If you were incredibly wealthy,

3:43

you'd have clove or nutmeg in

3:45

your meat, whatever. So they had

3:48

this magical presence in the imagination of

3:50

Europe. At the same

3:52

time, we have to think that part

3:54

of that imagination was focused by certainly

3:56

the influence of Marco Polo and the

3:58

way that he was he had

4:00

projected the whole of the Orient

4:03

as being critical. Columbus, in the

4:05

marginal note in his edition of

4:07

Marco Polo's work in Latin, said

4:10

that he was going for spices,

4:12

gold and gems, so they focused

4:14

something exotic beyond the European world.

4:18

You mentioned there that the control

4:20

of the trade was chiefly

4:22

in the hands of Muslim

4:24

kingdoms. Is that still the

4:26

case at the very beginning of the 16th

4:29

century? And if so, by what

4:31

means was the trade secured? It was

4:33

a whole network of trading points in

4:35

the hands of very many middlemen, from

4:38

spice irons to somewhere like Malacca

4:40

or to Goa on the west

4:42

coast of India, across the Indian

4:44

Ocean, to the Red Sea, taken

4:47

by other merchants up the Red Sea,

4:49

carried by camels to Carrow, up the

4:52

Nile to Alexandria, where you'd meet some

4:54

Venetians and Genoese who are going to

4:56

buy this stuff. It moved through

4:58

the hands of very many people, which is why

5:00

the markup by the time you got to Europe

5:02

was about a thousand percent. And

5:05

this diurnal trade, which depended

5:07

very much upon the monsoon,

5:09

was very ancient and very

5:11

well established. And

5:14

given that the rewards were

5:16

this value, the markup of

5:18

a thousand percent you mentioned,

5:20

that suggests that it must have been worth

5:23

taking those risks. So that's a lot

5:25

of travelling, that's a lot of effort. People

5:28

must have been getting rich from

5:30

this in order to carry on

5:32

doing it. Yes, absolutely. Cities were

5:34

founded and proffered throughout Asia on

5:37

this trade, and it was definitely worth the

5:39

risk. It certainly was. There was

5:41

a time when spices were more valuable than

5:44

gold. It was the first

5:46

global commodity really, the first globally

5:48

traded thing. And certainly, Mamluk Egypt

5:50

totally depended upon that trade. It

5:53

was supported by Genoese and Venetians

5:55

pitching up at Alexandria, and it

5:57

was really kept the Mamluk dynasty.

6:00

going until it was wiped out by the Ottomans in

6:02

1517. So yes, it was

6:04

definitely worth the risk. Now

6:07

you mentioned Columbus. This is a

6:09

time of enormous exploration and

6:11

expansion. So what impact did

6:13

that have? How was that sort of

6:15

interrupting the control of the spice trade

6:18

in the early 16th century? It

6:21

took a while for this really to

6:23

take off and it was really when

6:25

the Portuguese, when Vácico de Gama went

6:28

to India in the 1490s and brought

6:30

spices back around

6:33

the Cape of Good Hope to Lisbon,

6:35

that it froze the blood of the

6:38

nations and caused bank crashes because they

6:40

certainly thought that their whole business model

6:42

was out of date. If you could

6:44

stuff a hold full of spices into

6:47

a ship that was going

6:49

to be far more lucrative than the drip and

6:51

drab that you got at an enormous expense

6:53

at the hands of Islamic middlemen who you

6:55

didn't really want to trade with anyway.

6:57

So you can see it in

6:59

the annals of Venice, a moment at which Venice

7:02

really freaked out over the Vácico de Gama story.

7:04

In fact, they thought it was actually Columbus who'd

7:06

done it, but yeah, it shocked people. So

7:09

there's a European race to discover

7:11

the spice islands. What were the

7:14

main challenges facing those in Europe

7:16

in their search to try and

7:18

conquer the islands? By the

7:20

time the Portuguese had got to Malacca

7:22

and taken Malacca in 1511, they

7:26

had a pretty good sailing network

7:28

back into Europe. Beyond

7:31

that, they didn't really know where

7:33

they were or how to get

7:35

them, although they had captured some

7:37

charts and they depended upon local

7:39

Malay pilots who were merchant traders to

7:41

take them into the spice

7:43

island. And the challenge

7:46

really when they arrived was

7:48

trying to work out how

7:50

this really complicated little group

7:52

of islands operated, the

7:55

power structures, the rivalries, what were

7:57

they going to trade with what.

8:00

and the enormous complexity of

8:02

inter-island politics within the Malacca

8:04

was quite challenging. But the

8:06

Portuguese were enormously good at

8:09

gathering information. They'd had many years

8:11

of gathering information about the places

8:13

they were going to, asking questions,

8:16

finding translators, and

8:18

they worked out fairly quickly how

8:21

much you pay, who's on what

8:23

side, and they chose one island,

8:26

Tenate, over another island, Tidal, and

8:29

how to manage things. But it

8:31

was never easy because of

8:33

the enormous inter-tribal politics

8:36

of these islands. And

8:39

they also had to work out the

8:41

failing seasons, the diurnal fring of the

8:43

monsoon, and they had to

8:45

work out failing routes. But they were very

8:47

good information gatherers, unfortunately, so they learned this

8:50

quickly. And they

8:52

weren't the only ones trying to do this.

8:54

What can we learn about the battle, I

8:57

suppose, between Portugal and Spain over trade rights?

8:59

The Portuguese arrived their first.

9:02

The Spanish, to do with

9:05

the deep politics of the Atlantic,

9:07

had to sail west. And it

9:09

was only when Magellan made it

9:11

round into the Pacific that they

9:13

confronted each other. But

9:15

we see a kind of extraordinary

9:17

micro-war being fought in the Molacos

9:21

between these two adversaries, who

9:23

are separated by about 500

9:25

yards of sea, a very vicious

9:28

little contest to get control

9:30

of this terrain. And extraordinary

9:32

narratives of the Picts' attacks,

9:34

of they co-opted their local

9:36

allies, they raided, they plundered. They really spent

9:39

20 years slugging it out on the other

9:41

side of the world. Very weird little contest.

9:43

It's a very small group for men,

9:45

but they felt that what was at stake

9:48

really was a control of the whole pot.

9:51

One can imagine that this European

9:53

war played out in these islands

9:57

was massively disruptive to the indigenous

9:59

people. What sort

10:01

of evidence do we have about their

10:03

experience and how they responded to these

10:05

settlers? Unfortunately, we

10:07

have very little written

10:09

knowledge of how the

10:11

people of the Spice

10:13

Islands responded. Almost

10:16

everything that we know is

10:18

filtered through Spanish and Portuguese

10:20

narratives. And there

10:22

was certainly a point where they just wanted

10:24

to get rid of these people altogether. And

10:28

there was a point actually when the

10:30

Spanish and the Portuguese had to cooperate.

10:32

They built forts to protect themselves. And

10:34

there was a point when really they were

10:36

forced back on temporary alliances to

10:39

deal with the threat. Basically, as far

10:41

as we can understand it, the Portuguese

10:43

and the Spanish went totally unwelcome in

10:45

the scheme of things. They

10:48

were disruptive. They were brutal.

10:50

They wanted monopoly trading. Whereas

10:53

actually, the Spice Islands drew on

10:55

all sorts of people from across

10:57

the Malay Archipelago coming and buying

10:59

stuff. And people would come

11:01

from the Philippines, from China and so

11:03

on. So they would have loved to

11:06

have expelled these intruders, but it just

11:08

wasn't possible. They couldn't do it. It's

11:11

really interesting that you can say

11:13

that the Portuguese and Spanish were

11:15

brutal, but that we don't have

11:17

that from indigenous sources. So that

11:19

raises an interesting question because it

11:21

means that we're finding the material

11:23

in their own accounts. Is

11:25

there a sense that they feel entitled to

11:27

acts in that way? The answer is

11:30

yes, really. Of course, there's also

11:33

a missionary dimension to this. St. Francis

11:35

Xavier turns up and found it very unrewarding

11:38

trying to turn these people into Christians. They

11:40

felt that they were entitled to act in that

11:42

way. The Portuguese had laid claims in Malacca. They'd

11:45

laid claims to Goa. They

11:47

laid claims to almost the mouth of

11:49

the Persian Gulf. And they laid a

11:51

claim to the Malakas. They stuck their

11:53

flag on a map called the Miller

11:55

Atlas in about 1519. And

11:58

you've got the Malakas with it. There's an enormous... Fortunately,

12:00

they felt that they were driven by

12:02

God. They had a prerogative and a

12:05

right to do this When

12:17

you make decisions for your company You look

12:20

for the no-brainers and if you have a

12:22

lot of mailing to do stamps.com

12:24

is the ultimate no-brainer It

12:27

streamlines your processes to make your business

12:29

more efficient which makes you less busy

12:32

Mail checks invoices legal documents and

12:34

everything you need to keep your

12:37

business running with stamps.com Seamlessly

12:39

connect with every major marketplace and

12:41

shopping cart Schedule package pickups

12:44

and see your cheapest and fastest shipping

12:46

options from different carriers with the rates

12:48

up to 89% off USPS

12:50

and UPS rates and with the

12:52

stamps.com mobile app You can take

12:54

care of mailing and shipping wherever

12:56

you are Make the

12:58

same no-brainer decision as over

13:00

1 million other businesses with

13:02

stamps.com sign up with code

13:04

program For a four-week trial

13:06

plus free postage and a

13:08

free digital scale. No long-term

13:10

commitments or contracts That's

13:13

stamps.com code program

13:16

Have you ever wondered if the Hanging Gardens

13:18

of Babylon were actually real or

13:21

what made Alexander so great? Join

13:24

me Tristan Hughes twice a week

13:26

every week on the ancient from

13:28

history hit where I'm joined by

13:30

leading academics Best-selling authors and world-class

13:32

archaeologists to shine a light on

13:34

some of ancient history's most fascinating

13:37

questions like who

13:39

built Stonehenge and why what

13:41

are the Dead Sea scrops and why are they so

13:44

valuable and Were the

13:46

Spartan warriors really as formidable as the

13:48

history books say? Join

13:50

me Tristan Hughes twice a week every

13:52

week on the ancients from history hit

13:54

wherever you get your podcasts. Deeper

14:08

than into the way in which

14:10

the Spanish were attempting to find

14:12

a route to the islands and

14:14

what the in the opposite way

14:16

round. And what I meant for

14:18

relations between the two countries because

14:20

it's an interesting time, you know,

14:22

got diplomatic marriage is happening between

14:24

Spain and Portugal only one half

14:26

of the globe and on the

14:28

other half this battle being played

14:30

out and we obviously have talked

14:32

about the value of. Exactly

14:35

the bridge is it could bring. But

14:37

I suppose not many people look at

14:39

this by strikes today and think this

14:41

had enormous consequences on the lives of

14:44

people that this could lead to this

14:46

degree of war. So for those who

14:48

don't know anything about it, could you

14:50

outline some the events of those tumultuous

14:52

he is. I agree. It's

14:54

very difficult for us now to

14:56

understand how important the world will

14:58

suffice right For the first up,

15:00

Really well said that Spanish had

15:02

to learn to say around South

15:04

America and the real issue was

15:06

that nobody has any measure of

15:09

the size of the Pacific ocean

15:11

is now know how thousand miles

15:13

from districts of Mckellen to the

15:15

Malacca. it's a volume of water

15:17

which larger than all the terrestrial

15:19

landmasses and the world. And crossing

15:21

the see was incredibly difficult because.

15:23

Really saw a very long period

15:25

of three months you sale with

15:28

no opportunity to reproduce yourself and

15:30

these crews are going to be

15:32

decimated by scurvy. scurvy will start

15:34

killing a crew. They don't get

15:36

the human see within about a hundred and.

15:38

Ten. Days and the brutality of

15:41

they said. It took my long

15:43

time to realize how big the

15:45

Pacific was. The sheer tales of

15:47

suffering are extraordinary really he just

15:49

getting their the problem them for

15:51

the Spanish was having got their

15:53

how do they get back again

15:56

how do they take the step

15:58

back against they couldn't say. well

16:00

because that was Portuguese territory and they'd had

16:02

a treaty around that and anyway

16:04

the Portuguese had a much better hold on that

16:06

area and would capture them. So

16:08

we see a series of voyages one

16:10

after another where they get to the

16:12

Malacca's, they get some stuff and then

16:15

they try to sail back across the

16:17

Pacific and it's a lobster pot they

16:19

can't get out and there are about

16:21

four voyages, successive voyages where they

16:23

set sail and they're just blown back

16:25

by the winds and end up

16:28

having to surrender to the Portuguese and then get repatriated

16:31

by being put on Portuguese ships those

16:33

who survived and making it

16:35

back to Europe. So the suffering,

16:37

the sheer loss of human

16:39

life is quite extraordinary really

16:42

and this is only going to be solved

16:44

when one of the great forgotten heroes, if

16:47

you can call them that, of the age

16:49

of navigation. We think about

16:51

Columbus Vasco de Gama Magellan

16:54

and the fourth name in that is

16:56

a man called Andres Urdaneta. Urdaneta

16:58

spent something like 12 years

17:00

on the Malacca's, he went at 17 he

17:02

came back at the age of 28 but

17:05

he was a very bright guy and he

17:08

spent a lot of time studying

17:10

the pattern of the wind and eventually

17:13

in 1565 Philip

17:16

King Spain after Charles launches

17:18

an expedition from Mexico and

17:21

with the sole purpose of getting to the

17:23

island and making it back again. This

17:25

is like a moon shot, the

17:27

problem for NASA was you can send the people up there,

17:30

can you get them back again? But

17:32

Urdaneta had studied the meteorology

17:34

of the Pacific Ocean in a great deal

17:36

of detail and it was the best, the

17:38

quite expedition they'd ever had and he

17:41

worked out that you had to sail northeast, pick

17:43

up a wind and you could

17:46

make it back to Acapulco and it

17:48

worked and this was a crowning

17:51

moment in global oceanic connectivity. It

17:53

was the final link in the

17:55

chain that allowed Europeans to sail

17:57

all the way around the world.

18:00

And every year from then

18:02

on, when the Spanish established

18:04

a foothold in the Philippines

18:06

at Manila, every year

18:08

the Manila Galen would make that

18:10

voyage back to Mexico. And

18:13

this was the link in the

18:15

chain that linked all the oceans

18:17

together and was critical point in

18:19

a global trading network. And Odoneta,

18:21

who was by that time actually

18:23

a priest, was the man

18:25

who did it. He's fairly forgotten. He was

18:27

a Basque from northern Spain, and it was

18:30

a remarkable achievement. It's so

18:32

true. I mean, it's not a name that most

18:34

people would be able to give you if you

18:36

ask them. And yet, as you said, it's so

18:38

fundamental. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

18:42

Now, we're in the 1560s by

18:44

this point, but if we were to zip

18:46

forward the following decades, we

18:49

see that then the Spanish and the Portuguese are not

18:51

the only ones who want to get in on the

18:53

act. How is the spice

18:56

trade connected to the establishment of the

18:58

East India companies? That's

19:00

a fascinating story, I think. There

19:02

were in Seville a trading merchant

19:05

from Bristol, Robert Thorne and Roger

19:07

Barlow. These were

19:09

Bristolian merchants, licensed to trade,

19:12

and they had been there when El

19:14

Cano came back from the first expedition.

19:16

There were 245 people who set out

19:18

with Miguel in 18th May. And

19:20

they saw the wealth that was being

19:23

made. These guys are also slavers, we

19:25

have to say. But they realised that there

19:27

was no possibility that England

19:29

could muffle in on this

19:31

trade. But they

19:33

thought maybe there is another way,

19:36

and that other way could be

19:38

by sailing around Russia. And

19:40

they wrote to Henry VIII to say, we're

19:42

missing out on this. And England's

19:44

trade, 85% of its trade

19:46

was in cloth. A dangerous

19:48

kind of proportion, if you like. But

19:51

the central figure in this for them

19:53

was the Vatican Cabo. The

19:55

Cabos had been in Bristol. His Father

19:57

John Cabo had sailed for England. Frame

20:00

North America for England. His some Sebastian

20:02

who was actually a key figure in

20:04

the Spanish navigational hierarchy was what was

20:06

called the Pilot Major. He was the

20:08

chief of navigator who controlled all kinds

20:11

of activities that might make him so

20:13

on. and we think the service and

20:15

cabin probably said Robert so on a

20:17

map of the world was quite handy

20:19

with you sent back to England and

20:21

Cabo. he was a creature of off

20:23

as soon as he like so many

20:25

of these people he was generally eve

20:27

but he'd sell to Spain and then.

20:30

He defected to England. I

20:32

can swinging and he puts his

20:34

proposal to effectively. By this stage

20:36

hadn't it. It stayed and we

20:38

got able to save his young

20:40

man that there is another way

20:42

we should settle round Russia after

20:45

the reach of Spain and Portugal

20:47

and make it to Cafe China

20:49

and the Spice Islands. It's

20:51

difficult now to understand how people made

20:53

these sectors is leads. The thing about

20:56

thorns map was his act handily cut

20:58

off your for you got to the

21:00

top of Russia for the with no

21:02

way of thing whether though the way

21:05

round or not and it's hard to

21:07

get into the mentality of the people

21:09

who think forget to give that ago

21:11

but they did and one of those

21:14

instruments a Cabo introduce was a joint

21:16

stock company that merchant all contribute hit

21:18

a certain amount of money that is

21:21

not an imperial expedition that is have

21:23

much impact petition and these kinds of

21:25

structures were in place in Venice and

21:27

Genoa and he introduced this to England

21:30

so the much hims contributors in this

21:32

and avoids was made which came to

21:34

a certain sort of slightly grizzly end

21:36

of the coast Russia were two ships

21:39

of the leaders who will be were

21:41

frozen in and they all died for

21:43

the third shift the chancellor. Dns

21:45

them all Chancellor. John De called

21:48

him actually managed to fell into

21:50

the White See where archangels take

21:53

a sledge to Moscow and

21:55

strike up a trade deal with

21:57

Ivan the Terrible. But this financial.

22:00

The Or looking consolidated into a

22:02

company called the Mccovey Company which

22:04

traded with Russia reasonably whether it's

22:06

and terms and they sold clocked

22:08

him Russians and Trump but that

22:10

model John the who thought about

22:12

this and thought is the first

22:14

doesn't use the word I think

22:16

British empire. But. That model

22:18

of the joint stock company has

22:20

consolidated i think about sixty no

22:23

one into the East India Company

22:25

so beginning to see for the

22:27

origin from this voyage and cabbage

22:30

presence all of a mercantile independent

22:32

not crown based entrepreneurial financial sexual

22:34

structure and this is really but

22:37

I think going to be very

22:39

critical in the development of England

22:41

presence in the world. Activity.

22:44

And it's worth remembering though, that the

22:46

East Indies that the company is interests

22:48

in the first place is not India.

22:51

It is very much they are. and

22:53

we've been talking. About absolutely as he

22:55

was. the English are enormously interested in

22:57

getting the spices as well and way

22:59

after a member of course the great

23:01

had sailed rub Mccallum straight to made

23:03

it to the mark of him a

23:05

very well received. They had a kind

23:08

of backcloth to this and also managed

23:10

to tundra manila gallon along the way

23:12

which is quite happy. So he was

23:14

a prototype of this thing and yes

23:16

up with where they went but they

23:18

were be nonchalant by the Dutch and

23:20

the next his ration us Europeans wanting

23:22

to get as. Well,

23:25

and we've looks over the course

23:27

of the sixteenth century and beyond

23:29

at this European pursuit of the

23:31

Spice Islands as the come toward

23:33

fan of our time together. Could

23:35

you give me a sense of

23:37

the long term effects of this

23:39

to suit? Because and some ways

23:42

the still with us. I

23:44

can a long term effect to

23:46

the wall that the Spice Islands

23:48

where the cove which they paint.

23:51

Bought. This network of trading

23:54

routes who to sadness allowed

23:56

a slow commodities around the

23:58

world that. The same time

24:01

is also the jumping off point

24:03

from which the Portuguese and Spanish

24:05

push further into these, the Portuguese

24:08

into China and then Japan. With.

24:10

Slightly unfortunate consequences for themselves and

24:12

from the facts and then the

24:15

establishment. Of global trading hub

24:17

flight Manila which is going

24:19

to allow goods to fly

24:21

around the world so it

24:24

really moves. What comes after.

24:26

This is one a global

24:28

network of cities. Manila, Macau,

24:30

Mexico City, Seville, Malacca, Lisbon

24:32

go out with her own

24:35

bound together of and trading

24:37

terms. I'm. That provides all

24:39

kinds of things. And. Out

24:41

of this com the most extraordinary

24:44

consequences I think because the return

24:46

for the across the Pacific allows

24:49

the Spanish to take it one

24:51

step further when they start exporting

24:53

silver. From. The Mountains of

24:56

Peru Pato save with a mountain

24:58

in Peru which produce half the

25:00

world's So in the sixteenth and

25:02

seventeenth century, the most extraordinary mining

25:04

boom ever were almost the size

25:06

of London mountain of sixteen thousand

25:08

feet up in the Andes. And

25:10

and fifteen seventy one is like

25:12

a critical moment. I think Manila

25:15

is established as a hub. At

25:17

about the same time the Chinese

25:19

decided to overhaul their tax system

25:21

and that everything should be paid

25:23

for in silver. So what

25:25

happens is that the Spanish import

25:27

vast quantities of silver to sell

25:30

into China. With a place like

25:32

Manila, And Macau. all

25:34

been involved in some triangle

25:36

a trade and back com

25:38

exporting out of china plan

25:41

should elect center japan consumer

25:43

durables like particularly name pottery

25:45

sell all kinds of things

25:47

and it's like a model

25:49

of today everywhere china produce

25:51

and your consumed we have

25:53

got a whole global trading

25:56

system the workhouse flow of

25:58

bullion slows a model By

26:00

the middle of the 16th century, a Portuguese

26:02

nobleman could commission a dinner set

26:04

from Ming China with his coat of arms on it.

26:07

And you see in Vermeer's famous picture

26:09

of a woman with a balance, she's

26:11

weighing silver exactly at the

26:14

same time as a Portuguese missionary in

26:16

China had seen Chinese people doing exactly

26:18

the same thing. So we're starting to

26:20

see this acceleration of

26:22

goods flowing around the world,

26:24

changing all kinds of things.

26:26

We are at that point

26:29

seeing a global economic structure

26:31

coming into place. Well

26:33

of all people, you are

26:36

very well placed to have written about this.

26:38

Anyone who has read your previous works like

26:40

Conqueror's, City of Fortune, 1453, will know

26:44

that you deeply understand

26:46

things like empire and trade

26:49

and expansion and colonialism and

26:51

at the same time write

26:54

utterly beautifully. And your

26:56

new book is no exception. So those

26:58

who have had their appetites sweated, if

27:00

we can say that, Buy the Spice today

27:02

should pick up a copy of your

27:04

new book. Thank you so much for taking

27:06

the time to give us a flavour of it. Thanks

27:13

very much, I know you've really enjoyed it. And

27:22

thanks to you for listening to Not Just the

27:25

Tudors from History Hit. And also

27:27

to my researcher Alice Smith and my

27:29

producer Rob Weinberg. We are

27:31

always eager to hear from you, so do drop

27:33

us a line at notjustthetudors at historyhit.com

27:36

or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at

27:39

notjusttudors. And please remember

27:41

to follow Not Just the Tudors wherever you get

27:44

your podcasts, so you get each new episode as

27:46

soon as it's released. X

27:56

Powers the World's Best Podcasts. Hey

28:04

folks, it's Mark Mare from Wtf. I've been

28:06

talking to all kinds of famous people in

28:08

my garage since two thousand and nine including

28:10

a sitting President be I don't imagine you

28:13

were flying in here on the chopper thinking

28:15

like and I am nervous about Mark know

28:17

I was okay. Well that's good is now

28:19

would be a problem. We're really proud as

28:22

the freshman was fearless. Your stress from the

28:24

have as going to my door I'm in

28:26

your garage and now there's even more. Wtf

28:28

when you subscribe to the full marron to

28:31

get weekly bonus content and all. Wtf

28:33

episodes ad free. Listen

28:35

to Wtf wherever you

28:37

get podcasts and subscribe

28:39

to the full Marin

28:42

at Go.a cast.com/wtf. A

28:47

cast helps creators launch,

28:49

grow and monetized everywhere.

28:52

A cast that. History

28:57

is full of extraordinary people that

28:59

shooters being just a handful. In.

29:02

My latest film on history hit. We

29:04

meet Best of Hardwick and go inside

29:06

the incredible house that she built. a

29:08

house that defines the elegance and grandeur.

29:10

The Elizabeth An Age a house fit

29:13

for woman who climbed to the top

29:15

of the to to social ladder. To.

29:17

Find out more about the license. This

29:19

and many more fascinating seekers from the

29:22

past sign up vi the link in

29:24

the description with the code to does

29:26

for an exclusive. Discount.

Unlock more with Podchaser Pro

  • Audience Insights
  • Contact Information
  • Demographics
  • Charts
  • Sponsor History
  • and More!
Pro Features