Spice Factory (Civ3)/Civilopedia

The spice products found in the New World would never rival that found in India and
the East Indies. However, vanilla, allspice and chili are all native to the New World
and Europeans soon developed all three of these products as competition for the other,
more exotic spices from Asia and the Pacific. Control of the Eastern spice trade became 
one of the key sources of conflict between Portugal, England, and the Netherlands, with
the Dutch going so far as to burn spice plants to keep them out of enemy hands.