The Three Great Cities of Spice–Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam: A Three-Part Course with Michael Krondl
Description In the fifteenth century, the globe was transformed because a tiny European elite happened to like the taste of Asian spices. To feed this culinary fashion three European cities made and lost fortunes, fought wars, and committed atrocities. The course explores the history of the three European ports that benefited most from the elite medieval and renaissance taste for exotic spices.In Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam we virtually visit each city’s spice emporium, from the Rialto to Lisbon’s docks, to the warehouses of the Dutch East India Company. Each entrepot wrested a virtual spice monopoly from the other to supply both cooks and apothecaries with the Asian aromatics. The fashionable spices changed as did the manner of procuring them. Venice was little more than a middleman, purchasing pepper and other spices from middle-eastern merchants. Lisbon found a direct path to the South Asian sources building a necklace of trading posts around the world. The Dutch seiz