from the 5th to the 11th century: a world spice trade on a rollercoaster ride
In 410 AD, the Visigoths sack Rome. The ransom amounted to several thousand pounds of pepper. This was followed by a period in which the world's spice trade came to a halt, notably as a result of the barbarian invasion of North Africa.)
For 400 years, all trade between kingdoms ceased; laws, religions, arts and sciences seemed threatened with irreparable decline. Gradually, however, relations between nations were re-established, as it was clear that the cessation of trade was of little benefit to all.
Spice traffic passed along the Indus and Oxus (Amou-Daria) rivers, and a king of Armenia was even thinking of digging a canal between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea to allow ships to pass through. However, this titanic project never got off the ground...
Following the fall of the Roman Empire, Constantinople became the central spice market, Alexandria prospered and the Persian Gulf route expanded.
In 969, Cairo became the capital of the spice trade. In 1169, Sultan Saladin assigned European merchants a district in the city where they were allowed to trade. During this time, new spices such as cloves, nutmeg and turmeric were added to the collection of spices known to the ancients. The Moluccas (East Indonesia) came under Chinese control in 1012, the Chinese having realized the value of these native islands, later called the Spice Islands or Spice Islands by the Portuguese.
It was during the Crusades that trade relations resumed between East and West. Constantinople, Cairo and Baghdad had their day, especially Baghdad, where luxury and wealth reigned supreme. Furs, porcelain, silks, musk, perfumes and spices abounded. From China via Kaschgar, Samarkand and Bukhara, then the Caspian Sea to Astrakhan, then the Volga to the Sea of Azov and Caffa. Samarkand concentrated East and West and became the queen of Central Asian markets.
