USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Spices such as cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, ginger, pepper, nutmeg, star anise, clove, and turmeric were known and used in antiquity and traded in the Eastern World. These spices found their way into the Near East before the beginning of the Christian era, with fantastic tales hiding their true sources.

Detailed explanation-2: -spice trade, the cultivation, preparation, transport, and merchandising of spices and herbs, an enterprise of ancient origins and great cultural and economic significance. Seasonings such as cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, ginger, and turmeric were important items of commerce in the earliest evolution of trade.

Detailed explanation-3: -Spices were highly valued because, as well as being used in cooking, many had ritual, religious or medical uses. They were of high value because of their relative geographical scarcity. Spices could only be grown in the tropical East, in the South of China, Indonesia as well as in Southern India and Sri Lanka.

Detailed explanation-4: -Although the spice routes truly flourished across the oceans, the overland route of the Silk Road still saw plenty of spices pass through. Clove, ginger, turmeric, nutmeg, frankincense, black pepper, cinnamon, and saffron all made their way west.

Detailed explanation-5: -Valuable spices used in food preparation across Europe included pepper, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, saffron, anise, zedoary, cumin, and cloves. Although most of these were reserved for the tables of the rich, even the poorer classes used pepper whenever they could get it.