Einleitung

Casale, Rita; Gerhard, Ute; Wischermann, Ulla

doi:10.1515/fs-2008-0202

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Giancarlo Casale's study shows that from the fifteen-forties onwards, the Ottoman state assumed a direct involvement in the spice trade, culminating in the establishment of imperial factories in a number of Indian Ocean ports, possibly including Calicut. 131 Arguably, it was this commercial defiance of Portugal's pretensions to an ocean-wide pepper monopoly that was instrumental in the revival of the Red Sea spice trade in the mid sixteenth century, rather than the occasional naval challenges in which the Portuguese tended to prevail. Diplomatic exchanges of the Ottomans and the sultan of Atjeh from the period 1560-80 are evidence for their ambitions not only to oppose the Portuguese militarily, but also to extend pepper plantations on Sumatra to secure supplies for the Red Sea trade.…”

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‘Measuring by the bushel’: reweighing the Indian Ocean pepper trade

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2011

Historical Research

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Of all the oriental spices, black pepper was the most important until the eighteenth century. The historiography of the pepper trade is characterized by a strong focus on Europe in terms of both its economic significance in the ancient and medieval periods and the struggle for its control in the early modern period. This article, by contrast, seeks to situate the pepper trade firmly in its Asian contexts. It examines the Indian Ocean pepper trade from three perspectives. First, it places the trade in its supply-side context by focusing on the Malabar coast as the primary source of pepper. Second, it examines the relative importance of the different branches of Malabar's pepper trade and highlights the central role played by Muslim mercantile networks. Third, it considers the reconfiguration of these pepper networks in the sixteenth century in the face of aggressive competition from the Portuguese. In their sum, these arguments advocate the need for rethought balances of trade and a reweighted scholarly focus on the pepper trade in its global dimensions.

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confidence: 99%