Pepper

Although pepper is a common feature on our tables today, in its early trade history it was literally worth its weight in gold. For example, after the sack of Rome in 410 AD, the invading Visigoths demanded more than 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg) of black pepper (along with other riches) as their spoils of war. Considering that at this time the berry was still being hand picked from wild vines and transported mostly by land from India, 3,000 pounds was a colossal amount. By the late 1400s the spice had been integrated into aristocratic European cuisine to the extent that a more efficient trade route was needed to keep up with demand. This demand for pepper was largely responsible for motivating explorations in search of sea routes from Europe to southwest India where the crop was, by this time, being cultivated. With the sea route as his objective, Christopher Columbus famously set sail in the wrong direction and found America instead, leaving Vasco da Gama to chart the route in the name of Portugal. Since then, the demand for pepper has only increased and the transportation and cultivation of the spice have become more and more streamlined. The world’s major producers of pepper today are India, Indonesia, and Brazil.