ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- Maps; PROLOGUE; 1 The First Spice Traders; 2 The Spice Route; 3 The Silk Road; 4 Zheng He; 5 Venice and Lisbon; 6 Christopher Columbus; 7 Vasco da Gama; 8 Pedro Alvares Cabral; 9 Alfonso de Albuquerque; 10 Francisco Serrão; 11 Ferdinand Magellan; 12 Juan Sebastian Elcano; 13 Ternate and Tidore; 14 The Sultans; 15 Francis Drake; 16 The Dutch East India Company; 17 Jan Pieterszoon Coen; 18 Pierre Poivre; 19 Prince Nuku; EPILOGUE; TIMELINE; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX
Summary
Cloves and nutmeg are indigenous to the Spice Islands of Eastern Indonesia. The book tells of the many uses of these exotic spices and the history of their trade over a period of more than 2000 years. It describes how the Spice trade into Europe came to be dominated by Middle Eastern and Venetian merchants. Backed by the Crowns of Portugal and Spain explorers such as Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Magellan dreamt of sailing directly to the Spice Islands. Much of the story is told through the lives of these historical characters, as well as Sir Francis Drake, Jan Pieterzoom Coen, Pierre Poive and
