Spices and How to Know Them

by Walter M. Gibbs

Ginger is indigenous to China, and many leading authorities aver that it derives its name ginger in China, where it formerly grew abundantly, and that the plant was first called gingi at that place. It was common in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and was next in value to pepper, which was most common of all spices.

It was thought by the Greeks and Romans to have been a product of Southern Arabia and was received by them by way of the Red Sea. Pliny describes it as coming from Arabia. The Romans fixed a duty on ginger, which is mentioned among other Indian spices, and ginger is mentioned in the lists of dutiable goods of the Middle Ages, showing that it constituted an important item of commerce between Europe and the East. This duty was levied in Paris in 1296; Barcelona, 1221; Marseilles, 1228. Ginger appears to have been well known in England before the Norman conquest, since it is often referred to in the Anglo-Saxon books of the eleventh century.

Marco Polo appears to have seen the ginger plant, both in India and China, about 1280, and some of the missionary friars who visited India about 1292 give a description of the plant and refer to it as being dug up and transplanted. The Venetian merchants in the early part of the fifteenth century describe the plant as seen by them in India, and, though the Venetians received ginger by way of Egypt, some of the superior kinds were taken from India overland via Afghanistan, Persia, and Turkey, and the Black Sea, then through the Dardanelles to the Mediterranean and to the European market. Francis de Mendoza is said to have first introduced it into America in 1547, bringing it from the East Indies.

There is good proof of its having been shipped for commercial purposes from San Domingo in 1585, and as early as 1547 considerable quantities were sent from the West Indies to Spain.

The plant endures a wide range of climate. It may be grown at the sea level or in high mountain regions, providing the rainfall be abundant or irrigation be adapted. It is found cultivated from the Himalaya Mountains, 5,000 feet above sea level, to Cape Comorin.

It is now found in Southeastern Asia, in some of the islands of the Malayan Archipelago, on the west coast of Africa, in South America, and the West Indies, and, in fact, almost all warm countries, including China and Japan, which are large exporters of ginger. The city of Calcutta (City of Palaces), from two words, Kali-ghatta, signifying the landing place of the Goddess Kali, in Bengal India, exports more than any other city in the world. The finest white ginger, which is most in demand, comes from Jamaica. The acreage is not large, amounting to only 350 acres in 1891; it probably does not now much exceed 400 acres, but improved methods of cultivation have increased the average yield per acre to a large amount. Ginger is found in the following districts of India: Mahur, Massa, Patra, Darra, Kothi, Kotahi, Bagal, and Jayal. It is found throughout the Kwang-tung province, China. The district of Nan-hai, which belongs to the city of Canton, produces a greater quantity and better quality than any other of the neighboring districts. The independent tribes of the Miso-tsu, in the mountains of the northwestern border of the same province, produce much ginger, as does also Cochin China, from which the famous Cochin ginger derives its name. In the district of Hsin-hsing, about thirty miles south of the city of Chao-Ching, on the West River, three-tenths of the flatland and seven-tenths of the cultivated soil in the hills are planted with ginger. A distinction is made between flatland ginger (in Canton dialect ten-keung) which is generally soft and tender, and mountain ginger (shan keung) which is brittle and pungent.

Three kinds of ginger were known among the merchants of Italy about the middle of the fourteenth century.

The first was belledi or baladi (an Arabic name), which, as applied to ginger, would signify “country” or “wild,” and denotes common ginger.

Second: Calombina, which refers to Calumbum, Kolam or Quilon, a port in Travancore, frequently mentioned in the Middle Ages.

Third: Micchino, a name which denoted that the spice had been brought from or by way of Mecca.