Spice trade

The spice trade has been of major economic importance throughout human history and it particularly helped spur the Age of Exploration. The word spice derives from the Latin 'species', which in its later history came to mean goods or products, often of small volume and high value http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1291548,00.html. Spices brought to Europe from distant lands were some of the most valuable commodities for their weight, sometimes rivaling gold.

Effect on the spice-growing regions

As Fernand Braudel points out, the Indian Ocean basin in the time between the decline of the Roman Empire and the arrival of Vasco Da Gama was highly self-sufficient: "The Indian Ocean sought only luxuries from outside." The Mediterranean region's desire for pepper, spices, and silk, was balanced by India and China's desire for silver. (Braudel 184-185) The increasing import of silver and gold from the Americas gave Europe (first the Mediterranean, later Northern Europe) increased wealth with which to buy luxuries from the East; the sea route pioneered by Vasco Da Gama was tremendously more efficient than the older land route. Between those two factors, the trade soon reached a level greatly exceeding even that of Roman times.

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