How Pepper Changed Our World

In this episode of Taste of Place, Anna chats with:

• Dr. Paul Freedman, a professor of history at Yale University.

• Dr. Helen Clifford, a historian and archivist for the Company of Grocers.

• Lizzie Collingham, a historian and author.

Here are some highlights:

Pepper: The Blueprint for Colonialism

• Anna shares that pepper is one of the first spices that was traded into Europe.

• She also explains that pure capitalism was born with the East India Company in the early 1600s.

Pepper in Medieval England

• Dr. Freedman explains how pepper came to be known as common and “a mark of peasant tastes.”

• Anna points out how loved pepper was by the Romans.

• Dr. Freedman shares a merchant’s fable that was commonly believed until the 1300s and that drove the price of pepper up.

• Anna describes how wars and battles were caused by European nations racing to take control of trade routes since spices like pepper and nutmeg could not be grown in Europe at that time.

• Dr. Freedman points out that pepper was sought after due to its believed medicinal benefits.

The Fraternity of Pepperers

• Anna describes the Fraternity of Pepperers, now known as the Company of Grocers, its official founding in 1345.

• She highlights that this guild of pepperers petitioned the King in 1394 because they believed someone needed to check the goods that came into England. The King agreed and gave the guild that privilege.

• Dr. Clifford points out that these grocers were key members of the earliest companies in the 1550s, including the Muscovy Company, the Levant Company and the East India Company.

• Anna explains a historic milestone that changed the world: the demand for pepper and other spices, and the desire to acquire them at a lower cost, led the British to establish their own trade routes via the East India Company.

How Salt and Pepper Came to Be

• Lizzie explains that in the early 17th century, pepper was widely regarded as promoting the process of fermentation in the digestive system; therefore, salt and pepper became a ubiquitous pair and a staple on tables and in food.

Expansion of Trade

• Lizzie describes how unimportant pepper became in trade with the rising popularity of Indian textiles and other, more exotic, goods and spices.

A Brighter Future

• Anna concludes that although the riches that pepper provided created wars and has soaked our history in blood, sweat and tears, we can create a better way by investigating the past and by thinking critically about the systems of trade we participate in now.