The Spice Ports

A first-class narrative writer blends his unique cartographic and topographic understanding of the key ports of early seaborne commerce.

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We may think of ‘globalism’ as a recent development, but its origins date back to century and beyond, when courageous seafarers pioneered routes across the oceans with the objectives of exploration, trade and profits.

Improvements in ship design, compasses and mapping, enabled navigation across unprecedented distances. The embarkation points were the vibrant ports of the West – Venice, Amsterdam, Lisbon – and their destinations the exotic ports of the East – Malacca, Goa, Bombay – where they tracked down the elusive spices.

This development of maritime communication brought benefits apart from culinary delights: the spread of ideas on art, literature and science. But it was not necessarily beneficial for everyone concerned: colonial ambitions could be disastrous for local populations, often exploited as labour.

This wide-ranging account of a fascinating period of global history uses original maps and contemporary artists’ views to tell the story of how each port developed individually; while encouraging us to consider contrasting points of view of the benefits and the damages of the maritime spice trade.