Evening star., 1938-03-04

It was to find new route to the Spice
Islands, as the East Indies were called
and thus did Bartholomew Diaz and
Vasco da Cana round the Cape OF
Good Hope between 1885 and 1893.
For 200 years thereafter the Portu-
guese held monopoly Of the pepper
trade. Now that the priced commod-
ity did not have to run the gamut of
customs extortion during the long
caravan journey overland from the
Far East, the price dropped consider
ably; yet as late as 1923 pepper was
taxed in England at 2/6 $50 cents) to
the pound.
Like its boon companion salt, pepper
has played one Of the principal roles
in the drama of world trade. India
that richest jewel in the crown of
Britain's empire, really came under
European influence by way Of It's pep
per gardens.
While pepper is not singled out in
Bible history by. that household name,
1t figured prominently in the COM
merce Of these days as a member of
the spice family. 1t was "spicery and
balms and myrrh" that the Ishmael-
ties were conveying on their camels
from Gilead down to Egypt when they
struck the bargain to buy Joseph from
his wicked brothers for 20 pieces Of
silver. This was somewhere around
1929 BIC. the historians say-more
than $500 years ago.
Some seven centuries later we hear
of Solomon exacting tribute from the
spice merchants. Keeping his finger
on his country's economic pulse, that
sage ruler knew that fortunes we're
made in spices and he was losing no
opportunity of taxing excess profits
A portion of the presents that the
Queen of Sheba brought to Solomon
when she came to see him in all his
glory is said to have been in pepper,
WHEN Rome reached her greatness
w under the Emperor Augustus,
pepper was still the prerogative of
princes, a present passing between
persons Of rank and influence, and
placed in the same category as gold
and jewels. But the biggest part in
peppers colorful career was played in
408 BIC. the year in which the West
Goths descended upon Rome Alaric,
leader Of the barbarian horde, had his
FIRST taste of peppered food, and so
highly was his palate tickled that he
fixed the ransom Of the Eternal City
at 10000 pounds of pepper.
Just when pepper first reached the
British Isles it is hard to say. but
intrepid traders must have introduced
it at an early date. BY the 10th CEN
tury the trade in it is known to
have been brisk. 1t was a medium Of
exchange-a valued commodity in
which rents and tribute were paid. and
a portion Of the tax levied on ship
owners at Christmas and Easter was
set at 10 pounds of pepper. Among
London's famous trade guilds the
pepperers claim to be the oldest, with
a charter going back to 1345.
Cities like Venice and Genoa, those
commercial metropolises so famed in
the Middle Ages, owed no small share
of their wealth and Importance to the
trade in pepper, and one Of the oo-
jectives that Columbus aimed at was
. shorter route to the East Indies
where the coveted spices grew.
How, then, did the "red peppers" of
America come to be so called?
They bear no relation to the bona
fide pepper plant of the East, but be-
long to native family of capsicums-
that is, plants with hot capsules and
seeds. These we're unknown to the
Old World until after Columbus
brought home pepper more puneent
than that from Caucasus" and, inter-
estingly enough, since the discovery of
America the capsicums have been
transported to the tropics of the Old
World.
Capsicums have close cousinship
with the potato and tomato and we're