1Few forces in human history have shaped global cuisine as profoundly as the ancient and dangerous trade in spices.
2For many centuries, pepper, cinnamon, and cloves were so valuable that they were worth more than their weight in silver.
3Arab merchants guarded the secrets of their supply routes by spreading elaborate and fantastic tales about monsters and dangers.
4European powers eventually sent fragile wooden ships across vast unknown oceans in a determined effort to seize control of the trade.
5The consequences of that race were enormous, encompassing brutal colonisation, prolonged conflict, and the creation of vast private fortunes.
6Yet the culinary exchange that followed these voyages gradually and permanently transformed kitchens on nearly every continent in the world.
7Chillies carried from the Americas travelled eastward and completely revolutionised the traditional cooking of India, Thailand, and China.
8It is startling to realise that all of these famous cuisines existed entirely without chillies only five short centuries ago.
9Potatoes and tomatoes, likewise, made the long journey westward and fundamentally redefined the eating habits of ordinary Europeans.
10Every fragrant curry, rich pasta sauce, and hearty Hungarian stew carries within it the traces of this remarkable global migration.
11Modern fusion cooking, which is often dismissed as a passing fashion, actually continues a creative process that is already many centuries old.
12To study the history of spice is to understand just how deeply interconnected human societies have always been.