From Pharaohs to the modern-day kitchen: exploring the history of black pepper
The first in a regular series exploring the history of common household ingredients.
Ramesses the Great, known by his successors as the Great Ancestor, was the most powerful and revered pharaoh of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, fabled victor of countless wars that pushed the Egyptian empire to its zenith. Founder of numerous temples and cities, Ramesses amassed wealth and power to a level that had never been seen before in dynastic Egypt.
His mummified body was found in the tomb of a priest, the sarcophagus inscribed with a description of how his body was rushed there from the Valley of the Kings to protect it from looters. Upon examination, Victorian egyptologists found an extremely surprising substance stuffed in his ancient nostrils. Peppercorns.
Other than the fact that they were part of Ramesses’ mummification rituals not long after his death in 1213 BC, virtually nothing is known about the use of black pepper in Ancient Egypt - let alone about how fruits from a plant native to Kerala in southern India managed to make their way to the Nile kingdoms of 3000 years ago. Whilst the manner in which these precious corns sailed across the Indian ocean is unknown to us, we can be quite sure of their origin.
The Malabar coast of southwestern India is perfectly suited to maritime trade. The rich, tropical soils host verdant flora with an abundance of exotic spice crops which, in ancient history, were unknown to much of the world. The novelty - and rarity - of such fresh spices, as well as their unique, enthralling flavours, made them extremely valuable commodities for the pioneers of international trade. One of these spices, a dried fruit from an unassuming vine, was particularly sought after for its now-ubiquitous woody, floral heat. Black pepper would go on to bring vast fortunes through the Malabar coast and beyond for millennia to come.
Diamonds, sapphires, ivory and Chinese silks adorned the ships and warehouses of Muziris - the lost port city of the Malabar coast. It saw merchants from Persia and Arabia, North Africa and the Mediterranean; traders from much of the known world knew the riches of its shores. Many of them, however, would not part with their coin for gemstones or textiles - they sought a different kind of treasure. We know of Muziris only through some archaeological remains and ancient testimonies - an early Tamil bardic poem describes it as the "city where the beautiful vessels, the masterpieces of the Ionians, stir the white foam of the Periyar, river of the Chera, arriving with gold and departing with pepper”. The staple seasoning that sits on the tables of countless modern households was the original ‘black gold’ of antiquity. Muziris, along with a number of ports along southwestern India’s coastline, represented the nexus of the lucrative pepper trade for over a thousand years.
Throughout the classical Greek period, black pepper was a costly and very rare spice, exclusive to the tables of only the richest aristocrats. But as the Romans expanded their empire, particularly around the time they conquered Egypt in the 1st century BCE, fleets of Roman ships were able to cross the open sea to India, following the predictable cycles of the monsoon winds that snaked across the Indian ocean.
This meant that, while still a lavish purchase, black pepper was becoming a regular feature of Roman cuisine in the upper echelons of society. The third-century Roman cookbook De re Coquinaria, for example, features a number of recipes containing black pepper. Peppercorns were an extremely desirable ingredient in Roman cooking: famed author and philosopher Pliny the Elder once lamented that “there is no year in which India does not drain the Roman Empire of 50 million sesterces.”
From the fall of Rome right through the medieval period, pepper was so valued that it was often used as currency. As Rome’s empire was crumbling, Germanic tribes tightened their grip on the once-powerful city. 3,000 pounds of pepper was included as ransom by Alaric, king of the Visigoths, when he besieged Rome in the 5th century AD. The ensuing chaos of the fall of the Roman empire did nothing to dislodge black pepper’s status as a luxury item: traders who made journeys spanning months to India and back would find their markets for pepper and other spices dominated by the peoples that were situated along the trade route. The Persians and Arabs would hold an iron grip over the trade of pepper in their ports that operated on the middle part of the journey, and cities such as Basra and Aden blossomed with wealth and prosperity as a result. The spice trade was instrumental to bringing wealth and influence in the Islamic world, which helped generate the cultural and intellectual flourishing of the Middle East at the time.
In Europe, the Venetian stranglehold on the spice trade was an unyielding monolith of mercantilism in the Middle Ages. Initially leveraging close ties with Byzantium, Venice could take full advantage of spice routes from Asia and was geographically positioned to dominate trade with the east. As the Byzantine empire petered out, Venetians would strike new deals with Muslim traders in Alexandria, taking advantage of the vast cargo of spices that flowed through the Nile Delta. With the positions the Venetian merchants had in the Islamic world protected as a result of these trade agreements, they were able to control in its entirety the price of pepper in Europe. This was, unsurprisingly, exorbitant. The nature of pepper as a symbol of wealth was universal in European high society in the 13th and 14th centuries; its smell and taste a visceral indicator that you were in the presence of someone with serious authority and deep pockets.
In 1497, famous Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama underwent what was then the longest ocean voyage ever seen, skirting the tip of southern Africa and crossing the Indian ocean to India and southeast Asia. This was chiefly to bring spices such as pepper and cinnamon back to Portugal, without crossing the domineering presence of the Venetians and the Arabs. Such was the burning desire for a hand in the global spice markets that ships would take a 7000 mile detour just to get the chance to acquire pepper from its source. This voyage, while initially only moderately successful, would mark the beginning of Portuguese dominance over trade in Asia, and by consequence, pave the way for global imperialism as a whole. This position of power in the pepper trade lasted for a century until entities such as the British East India Company and its Dutch counterpart would begin to vye for maritime supremacy over the lucrative spice routes.
Increased production and the exponential expansion of global trade meant that the price of pepper declined in this period and became available to the majority of people. People of more modest means were now able to taste the seasoning that sat alongside platinum and pearls in the eyes of the royals and the filthy rich in times gone by. Nowadays it is difficult to picture the humble peppercorn as such a symbol of wealth and status, but the truth is that for much of history, its value made it a linchpin of international trade and an iconic representation of early globalisation.
-Mike McShanE
About the author
Mike is currently the lead strategist for EATE, working behind the scenes with Sam to keep the business running. But he’s clearly not working hard enough, as he seems to be writing articles all the time.
@mikemcshane_
