Spices by Fred Czarra

Author:Fred Czarra
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Reaktion Books

The French and Danes Play a Part

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, France and Denmark played small roles in the spice trade. Both nations based their operations not on the Malabar coast of India or in the Spice Islands but on the south-east coast of India, the base for textiles and cloth that were desired all over Asia and Africa. Here they joined the Dutch and the English, who also realized the great value of the Indian cloth that supplied many global markets and afforded access to East Asian spices.

The French had attempted to enter the spice trade more directly at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Initially, and with the unofficial support of the king, freebooters started pirating Portuguese ships that were carrying Asian spices to the north of Europe from Lisbon to Antwerp. Additionally, French vessels from various western ports intercepted Portuguese ships returning from India off the west coast of Africa or in other parts of the Atlantic. The French also established royal ports for the importation of spices into France. Over time they became carriers of the spices for Venetian or Genoese traders, and eventually Marseilles became a major centre for spices. The French made one venture into Asia from the port of Dieppe after 1527. Two ships set out for the Moluccas, running a Portuguese blockade and making it to Sumatra. Two of the leaders died of fever after failing to deal with Sumatran leaders or trade for spices. One of the vessels returned home in 1530, convincing the French to leave the spice trade to the Portuguese. However, French piracy of Iberian vessels continued along the Atlantic coast.

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