Spices and How to Know Them

by Walter M. Gibbs

Celsius recommends that it should be given “perparationem.” It is mentioned in the herb book of the Chinese Emperor Shen-nong, and was known in China 2,700 B. C. under the name of “Kwei” and was introduced into Egypt about 1,600 or 1,500 B. C., and China maintained her monopoly until the discovery of cinnamon on the Island of Ceylon. It would appear that cinnamon was not confined to Asia, much less to Ceylon, in former times. Ibn-Batuta is credited with having first mentioned the Island of Ceylon as a cinnamon region, for the Sayalan of Kazwini and Yakut is not Ceylon, as supposed by Colonel Yale and others, but Rami or Sumatra.

The Romans were supplied by the Arabs, the cinnamon being carried up the Nile in ships, then across the desert on camels to the Red Sea, which they crossed to a port of Arabia, where India merchants were met and exchanges took place, the cinnamon being the most important article of commerce from India, and in this way the odors of the far-famed cinnamon spice came, by poetical liberty, to be associated with “Araby the Blest” by the system of transit by caravans overland through Arabia.

The Romans communicated with India only once each year during the reign of Augustus, and at such times invested about £403,000 in the trade of cinnamon. They figured on about 100 per cent. profit. History tells us it was at one time sold in Rome at $25 per pound.

Even in comparatively modern times the products of the more eastern parts of Asia were chiefly imported into Europe by way of Egypt. The Venetians almost entirely controlled this lucrative branch of commerce, and through their hands these articles were supplied to the rest of Europe. But when the passage around the Cape of Good Hope was discovered by the Portuguese, in 1498, Indian commerce was turned into a different channel and the Portuguese soon supplanted the Venetians in the traffic of Indian commodities. Early in the sixteenth century they obtained permission from the powers of Ceylon to establish a factory on that island. Although the Europeans had obtained license from the ruling authorities to pursue this trade, the Arab merchants did not submit without a struggle to the intrusion. They vigorously opposed the landing of the strangers who were taking their trade away from them, but the Portuguese built the fort of Colombo and soon after made a treaty with the king of Kandy, by the terms of which the Portuguese agreed to assist the king of Kandy and his successors in all their wars and in return were to receive out of the Kandyan territory an annual supply of 124,000 pounds of cinnamon. The Dutch viewed with a jealous eye the rich and thriving Portuguese, and soon after they established themselves in the East Indies, and became desirous of monopolizing the cinnamon trade, they tried to undermine the Portuguese by showing favors to the king of Kandy, and in this way tried to have him drive the Portuguese from the island. The Dutch were partly successful in their bold attempt, as the king of Kandy, in 1612, agreed to sell the Dutch East India Company all the cinnamon that he could collect in his kingdom. The Portuguese, however, would not quietly submit, but after a long contesting of the matter it ended in 1645 in a treaty of peace with the Dutch, by which both nations were to share equally. During the time this treaty was in force both nations employed native cinnamon cutters to cut and prepare the aromatic bark, and all that was collected on either side was deposited in a central situation upon the river Dondegam, near Negombo. When the cinnamon harvest was completed an equal division of the quantity obtained was made, each party paying half the cost of harvesting. This amicable arrangement was not, however, of very long continuance, and in 1652 a fresh war proved more disastrous to the Portuguese, who were finally expelled from the Island of Ceylon in 1658. The Dutch now made strenuous efforts to obtain a monopoly of the cinnamon trade, and they also tried for the exclusive commerce of the Malabar coast. This was very expensive to the Dutch, as merchants of other countries, by paying a good price, were always able to obtain it from the natives notwithstanding the decrees of the princes of the country.

All through the Portuguese and Dutch periods, cinnamon was the principal source of wealth. The Dutch first tried cultivating it in 1767, thereby occasioning much fear on the part of the native Sinhalese that the cultivation would ruin the cinnamon forest. Previous to this time, in 1506, large trees were found by the Portuguese growing wild and scattered through the interior of Ceylon. The Dutch, after many attempts to restrict the cultivation of it to the Island of Ceylon, passed a law making the removal of the seed from the island a crime punishable by death. The law also provided that persons should be compelled to care for the tree, even if it were on their property, and it further provided that any person discovered in cutting a shrub of cinnamon on the island should have his right hand cut off. This law so retarded planting that up to 1808 or 1809 only 15,000 acres were cultivated. Exportation was restricted to 8,000 bales of 100 pounds each. In 1796, Ceylon was captured by the English. They put an end to these barbarous laws, but a monopoly was continued until 1832. Afterwards the cultivation of the tree was introduced by the Dutch into their own islands and the Malay Peninsula, an act which would have been much more creditable to the Dutch had they tried this means earlier, instead of warring with other countries.

It is estimated that the world’s production of true cinnamon does not exceed 400,000,000 pounds, while an equal amount of cassia is collected chiefly in China and the East Indies. Cinnamon is not an article which enters into the daily food of the masses of the people, and the consumption does not increase with a low price or decrease when the price is high. The present consumption does not equal one pound to each 500 inhabitants of the earth.

Cinnamon and cassia blume are the barks of several species of genus cinnamomum (natural order lauroceæ) and the true cinnamon, with which cassia is often compounded, is produced by cinnamomum Zeylanicum, formerly called Laurus, which is a member of the laurel family (French, Cannele de Ceylon; German, Zimmt Ceylon, Zimmt Kaneel; Arabic name, Kinsman).

The true cinnamon tree, if left in its natural states, varies in height and dimensions in different sections, growing to the height of twenty to forty feet with a straight trunk, and is from twelve to eighteen inches in diameter. It is the hardiest of any of the spice trees, and in its natural climate grows on almost any soil and at almost any elevation, with an average temperature of 85 degrees and an inch of rainfall for every degree. It may be grown by cultivation in any place where it is found growing wild. When sheltered from the wind and the direct rays of the hot sun, it will grow from 1,500 to 8,000 feet above the sea level. It is found in those angles of the mountains which face the monsoons. Where it is cultivated, it is cut back when six years old to about fifteen feet and every two years thereafter, and then has the general appearance of an orange tree. It is an evergreen with a beautiful scarlet foliage which changes to a dark glossy green.

The leaf and leaf stalk are globous and are nearly opposite, oblong, ovate, obtuse, the largest being from eleven to twelve centimeters in length and from five to seven centimeters in width. The leaf is coriaceous and shining bright green above and glaucous beneath. Besides the middle vein there are also two other veins on each side starting from the stalk, rounded to the shape of the edge of the leaf nearly to its extremity. The leaves on drying acquire a reddish-brown color due to the oxidation of the essential oil which they contain.

Small, dingy, white or greenish blossoms disposed in terminal panicles appear in January or February, their strong and unpleasant odor resembling a mixture of lilac and rose. In color they resemble mignonette. By May they develop into small, purplish, brown-colored berries enclosed at the base by a calyx and shaped like an acorn. The berry contains a soft brown pulp and has but one seed, which ripens in August and is gathered by the natives for the fragrant oil it contains.