The Venetian Spice Monopoly

 Causes the First Globalization Through an Italian Explorer

Grades 7-10

Subjects: World History / United States History / Economics

Categories: History and Society

Standards:

Please read the New Jersey Student Learning Standards at the end of the lesson They will help you give explicit instructions to your students and help you create rubrics most appropriate for your class.

Objectives:

Students will be able to:

1. Create an historically accurate proposal to present to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand to finance a western voyage.
2. Determine and present why it would be in 15^th century Spain’s economic best interest to take ships westward for the first time in history.
3. Outline and articulate why the spread of Christianity was a key factor to motivate Queen Isabella to agree to finance the expedition.

Abstract:

Students will explore the rise and fall of Venice as a center of Mediterranean trade. With the fall of Christian Constantinople in 1453, Venice was able to establish a monopoly on the European spice trade through a treaty with the Muslim Mamluks in Alexandria, Egypt.  Alexandria placed a 33% tariff on exports that Venetians passed on to European nations.   During the late 15^th century, the Portuguese looked to sail around Africa to break the Venetian monopoly, while Christopher Columbus looked for patronage in Spain to sail westward to Asia.

Students will answer the question: How would they (or Columbus) prepare and propose an appeal to the Spanish monarchs for funding to travel westward?

Key Terms:

Cartographer    Latin and Greek           One who makes maps.

Hispanic          Spanish                         The Spanish-speaking parts of the New World. The term

is from 1889, in American English since c. 1972.  The term is not to be confused with “Latino” which includes people from other Latin American nations who do not speak Spanish.  They speak other Romance (Latin based) languages, such as Portuguese in Brazil and French and Haitian Creole in Haiti.

Monopoly         Latin and Greek           Having exclusive control over a commercial activity.

Mamluk           Arabic                          Literally, “slave;” enslaved children from southern

Russia who were trained to be warrior slaves for the

Arab Muslims.

Navigator         Latin                            One who directs the course of a ship.

Orient              Latin                            The East; Asia.

Background:

In 1453, the Muslim Ottoman Turks finally defeated the last vestige of the Eastern Roman Empire, the “Second Rome” at Constantinople. There had been an overland spice-trade route from the Orient that went through Constantinople and avoided a Venetian-Mamluk near monopoly of the spice trade from the East.  Once the Turks closed the Constantinople spice-route, the Mamluks placed a 33% tariff on the spice trade to Europe. Yet, the Venetians still prospered.  They just passed the tariff costs on to their customers.  Unfortunately for Europeans, kingdoms and dukedoms now had to pay much more for their luxuries.  In reaction, both Portugal and Spain looked for alternate routes to meet the customers’ demands.

Portugal looked to go around the African Cape of Good Hope to sail to India and on to the “Gateway to the Indies,” Malacca.  They believed, “He who is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice.”  Spain, in contrast, had to wait until they had defeated and expelled the Moors from Granada, the Muslims’ last enclave on the Iberian Peninsula.  Christopher Columbus proposed they voyage westward.  They could then avoid the dangerous currents off the southeast coast of Africa and possible confrontation with Mamluks’ ships coming out of the Red Sea.  (See full essay, below)

Procedures:

1. Explain the term “monopoly” to the class.
2. Let students watch the Venice Spice monopoly video.
   1. Before the video, tell students that at the end of the video they will write down a possible alternative to the Venetian trade monopoly.

• Give them a copy of a map of the Eastern Hemisphere or have them use their textbook maps to develop a mental map of the events.
  1. Find Venice; Constantinople; Alexandria, Egypt; Spain, and Portugal. Have them locate the city of Sochi in southern Russia (NE corner of the Black Sea), where the Mamluks came from in the Circassia region. Then have them locate the Red Sea; India; and Malacca: the gateway to the East Indies.

1. Students will read “The Venetian Spice Trade Sparks Globalization.”
   1. And/or, use the PowerPoint to present the essay’s content.
   2. Students will examine their alternative plan after seeing the video and make adjustments using the new data, obtained from the reading.
2. Organize the students into 4-5 groups.
3. Students will then read Christopher Columbus’ 1494 letter to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand.
   1. Columbus spells out what the monarchs expect him to do on his next trip and what he promises to do.
      1. Students can see what appeals to the King and Queen and use some of these 1494 points in their 1492 proposals to entice their interests.
   2. Students will use the letter as a style example when they create their proposal to circumvent the Venetians.

• Within each group, students will discuss their individual alternatives to the Venetian market with their group.
  1. They will consider how to use ideas from individuals to create a group proposal.
• Each group will be asked to answer the question:

Why is travelling west the most cost effective and efficacious alternative to the Venetian Spice Trade and the Portuguese “around Africa” alternative?

1. Once they develop an answer, have the students create an historically accurate 1492 proposal to present to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand requesting money to take ships westward.
   1. They must look to convince the monarchs this is the best way to use money now that the war with the Muslim Moors had been won and the Moors expelled from the Iberian Peninsula.
2. Provide students with resources and/or use the online resources found below.
3. They will explain why Columbus’ proposal to sail west for the first time in history will circumvent the Venetian spice trade monopoly and bring tremendous profits to Spain.
4. The proposal will also explain why Columbus will give Spain a competitive advantage over Portugal.
   1. Use the data they have accumulated to compose the proposal.
5. The proposal will include how Columbus will spread Christianity, a critical factor for Isabella.

1. Make sure they discuss selling the spice cargo to northern Europe kingdoms and nations and competing with the Venetians and Portuguese there.
2. Once each group has completed its proposal, one representative will read their group’s proposal to the class.
   1. Have all groups vote on which group has the best proposal.
      1. They cannot vote for their own group.

Assessment:

1. Critique each group’s plan.
   1. Make sure they include:
      1. The unavailability of goods from the Constantinople-Oriental Silk Road trade route;
      2. How Columbus would circumvent the Venetian-Mamluk monopoly and reduce Venetian power;

• How the Spanish would avoid naval confrontation with Mamluks in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean;

1. A plan to trade with northern European ports; and
2. Why conversion of natives to Catholicism is critical to get the monarchs’ approval.

Additional Assessment:

1. Have students answer the following questions in paragraph form.
   1. Why did the Turkish conquest of Constantinople lead to the Spanish discovery of America for Europeans?
   2. If one of the groups’ plans was to work, why would its success lead to the demise of Venice as a power?

Use the New Jersey Registered Holistic Writing Rubric to assess determinations and predictions.

Resources:  Books

Jacques Barzun. From Dawn to Decadence: 500 of Western Cultural Life. Harpers Collins, Publishers. 2000.

Roger Crowley. Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire, 2015

1807. R. Disney. A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, Vol. 1: From Beginnings to 1807. (Volume 1) Illustrated Edition

Rodney Stark. How the West Won: The Neglected Story of Triumph of Modernity. ISI Books, 2014.

Articles
The Spice That Built Venice

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/spice-trade-pepper-venice-180956856/

The Venetian Monopoly on Spice

https://modernmedievalman.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/the-venetian-monopoly-on-spice/

Who were the Mamluks?

https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/who-were-mamluks

Portuguese–Mamluk Naval War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese%E2%80%93Mamluk_naval_war

History of Trade

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=hbk#ixzz6yYWF4tus

Conquerors: How Portugal Seized the Indian Ocean and Forged the First Global Empire

https://imperialglobalexeter.com/2016/01/06/conquerors-how-portugal-seized-the-indian-ocean-and-forged-the-first-global-empire/

The Battle For Spices and Control Over The Most Important Naval Trade Route.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/history/the-battle-for-spices-and-control-over-the-most-important-naval-trade-route.html

Portuguese Explorations and West Africa

https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/history/us-history-i/exploration-and-early-colonization/portuguese-explorations-and-west-africa

2020 New Jersey Student Learning Standards – Social Studies

Go to: Social Studies NJSLS 2020 (June) for specific Performance Indicators appropriate for you curriculum

6.2 World History / Global Studies by the end of Grade 8

Era 4. Expanding Exchanges and Encounters (500 CE–1450 CE)

The emergence of empires (i.e., Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas) resulted from the promotion of interregional trade, cultural exchanges, new technologies, urbanization, and centralized political organization. The rise and spread of new belief systems unified societies, but they also became a major source of tension and conflict. While commercial and agricultural improvements created new wealth and opportunities for the empires, most people’s daily lives remained unchanged

6.2 World History: Global Studies by the End of Grade 12

Era 1. The Emergence of the First Global Age: Global Interactions and Colonialism

The methods of and motivations for exploration and conquest resulted in increased global interactions, differing patterns of trade, colonization, and conflict among nations. Colonization was inspired by the desire to have access to resources and markets, often at the expense of the indigenous culture, population, and environment.

The Venetian Spice Trade Sparks Globalization

The Italian city-states of Venice and Genoa obtained landing facilities to establish trading centers on the shores of the Levant, once the victorious Crusaders had set up states, after 1098. Europeans quickly learned to trade with Syrians and Arabs, by bringing food, clothing, wool, and metal to the Near East. They exchanged the European goods for fruit, jewelry, and spices, which were brought back to Italy. From this trade, the Italian city-states prospered considerably. The high point of Venetian fortune came during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. They had transported Crusaders and pilgrims to the Imperial City of Constantinople, and they convinced the Crusaders to conquer the “Second Rome.”

As the Latins took control of the center of the Eastern Empire, they quickly appreciated that the source of the vast eastern wealth lay in its fantastic spice trade. With Venetians in control of Constantinople, the eastern trade tremendously increased the wealth of Venice and its commercial importance. The competence of Venetian sailors and merchants suddenly changed basic European eating habits. Not only did the upper classes experience these changes, the middle classes also easily obtained eastern spices including pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and cardamom, along with new types of foods such as figs, raisins, almonds, lemons, oranges, sugar, and rice. The riches that poured into the Italian city-states greatly expanded their wealth and power. This ongoing stream of abundance eventually financed the great Italian patrons’ means to commission the brilliant Renaissance artists, architects, and authors of the next centuries.

Ultimately, the Eastern Christians were able to regain control of Constantinople from the Latin Christians, and they again served as a conduit for the lucrative overland spice trade between the East and Europe. Despite the setback in Constantinople, Venice was still able to dominate the major spice trade route that brought spices up the Red Sea to Egypt, then ruled by the Mamluks. The Mamluks were a group of soldier-slaves originally from the Circassia region of southern Russia, located on the northeast corner of the Black Sea.  Arab Muslims had taken them as children, enslaved them, and used them as elite soldiers. The Mamluks had taken over Egypt and Syria in 1250.  The Mamluks had Egyptians transport bags of spices to Cairo and then on to the Italian trading settlements in Alexandria. Trade was voluminous and great in value. A large Venetian galleass (merchant galley), coming from Alexandria with the full hulls, often carried a cargo valued at over 200,000 ducats (European gold coins valued at over $20 million in today’s dollars). The Europeans also strongly resented the lucrative Venetian monopoly. Some thus turned their efforts toward alternate means of procuring the goods.

When the Muslim Ottoman Turks were able to take Constantinople and extinguish the Eastern Empire, the center of Eastern Christianity in 1453, most Europeans were horrified. The Mamluks, gatekeepers of the trade with Venice, quickly realized that they were the only source of spices for European appetites. Consequently, they confidently imposed tariffs amounting to one third of the value of spices passing through their cities. The new tariff did not hurt Venetian coffers because they just passed the tax onto their European customers. With no Eastern Roman alternative, Europeans were at the Mamluk-Venetian monopoly’s mercy.

Salvation for the desperate tastes of European nobility and their exchequers lay in finding an alternative sea route to the Indies. When markets become dominated by one or a few providers who gouge the customers, customers will vigorously explore alternatives. The European reaction to the Mamluk-Venetian monopoly was no different.

Europeans eagerly launched an expensive search for the near mythical Malacca, the most lucrative source of eastern spices and the fabled gateway to the Spice Islands. The rationale for this expense was simple: “He who is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice.”

To reach Malacca, Portugal’s Vasco da Gama finally rounded Africa’s Cape of Good Hope to reach India in 1498. As the Portuguese explorers began to return to Lisbon with large cargos of the coveted spices, the Venetians and the Mamluks were devastated. Prices of pepper in Lisbon fell to less than one-fifth the price in Venice. The monopoly had been broken.

The Spanish, however, did not initially experience the great success of the Portuguese. The Genoese-born explorer, Christopher Columbus did not find a western route to the Indies. Instead, he landed in the, previously unknown, Western Hemisphere. Columbus immediately named the native inhabitants, Indians, assuming he had landed in the Indies. The Spanish, at first, had no idea how valuable Columbus’ discovery would be. They looked at Portugal with envy.

After Vasco da Gama had rounded the Cape of Good Hope, the Portuguese believed they would now have control of the precious spice trade. They defeated a newly constructed Mamluk navy sent to destroy the new competition.  With no Mamluk threat, the Portuguese controlled the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea trading lanes.

In reaction, the shrewd merchants of Venice were not going to sit idly by and watch their financial and commercial empire crumble away. By 1504, the spice trade in Alexandria and in Beirut had dried up because the Portuguese had diverted so much of the Indies’ spice to Lisbon, Portugal. Thus, the lucrative spice market had moved northward. In response to market forces, the Venetians moved their famous spice market from the Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice to Antwerp and then on to Amsterdam to begin domination of the northern trade. To increase imports from the Levant, in 1514, Venice also granted permission for spices to leave their trading stations and be transported by any vessel, instead of only Venetian galee da mercato (merchant galleys). The Portuguese efforts to capture the spice trade were curbed, and the Levantine spice trade survived. The major markets in the Levant were in Syria, especially in the former Crusader towns of Aleppo and Tripoli. Trading with the Levant was always precarious, and the trade went through many phases. The commercially adroit Venetians overcame the Portuguese challenge. Nevertheless, the Spanish discovery of a New World eventually led to Venice’s decline. Though the New World did not have all the spices of the Asian east, it did possess other treasures, along with the climate to grow much of the East Indian produce. Like other times throughout history, people will use innovations to overcome monopolies and formidable business practices. Skillful businessmen always adjust to maintain or regain their market share. If they are not flexible, they will crumble as so many “impregnable” monopolies have done in the past.

Letter to the King and Queen of Spain

Christopher Columbus (1494)

Most High and Mighty Sovereigns,

In obedience to your Highnesses’ commands, and with submission to superior judgment, I will say whatever occurs to me in reference to the colonization and commerce of the Island of Espanola, and of the other islands, both those already discovered and those that may be discovered hereafter.

In the first place, as regards the Island of Espanola: Inasmuch as the number of colonists who desire to go thither amounts to two thousand, owing to the land being safer and better for farming and trading, and because it will serve as a place to which they can return and from which they can carry on trade with the neighboring islands:

1. That in the said island there shall be founded three or four towns, situated in the most convenient places, and that the settlers who are there be assigned to the aforesaid places and towns.
2. That for the better and more speedy colonization of the said island, no one shall have liberty to collect gold in it except those who have taken out colonists’ papers, and have built houses for their abode, in the town in which they are, that they may      live united and in greater safety.
3. That each town shall have its alcalde [Mayor], and its notary public, as is the use and custom in Castile.
4. That there shall be a church, and parish priests or friars to administer the sacraments, to perform divine worship, and for the conversion of the Indians.
5. That none of the colonists shall go to seek gold without a license from the governor or alcalde of the town where he lives; and that he must first take oath to

return to the place whence he sets out, for the purpose of registering faithfully all the gold he may have found, and to return once a month, or once a week, as the time may have been set for him, to render account and show the quantity of said             gold; and that this shall be written down by the notary before the alcalde, or, if it seems better, that a friar or priest, deputed for the purpose, shall be also present

6. That all the gold thus brought in shall be smelted immediately, and stamped with some mark that shall distinguish each town; and that the portion which belongs to your Highnesses shall be weighed, and given and consigned to each alcalde in his own town, and registered by the above-mentioned priest or friar, so that it shall not pass through the hands of only one person, and there shall he no opportunity to conceal the truth.
7. That all gold that may be found without the mark of one of the said towns in the possession of any one who has once registered in accordance with the above order shall be taken as forfeited, and that the accuser shall have one portion of it and your

Highnesses the other.

8. That one per centum of all the gold that may be found shall be set aside for building churches and adorning the same, and for the support of the priests or friars

belonging to them; and, if it should be thought proper to pay anything to the alcaldes or notaries for their services, or for ensuring the faithful perforce of   their duties, that this amount shall be sent to the governor or treasurer who may be appointed there by your Highnesses.

9. As regards the division of the gold, and the share that ought to be reserved for your Highnesses, this, in my opinion, must be left to the aforesaid governor and treasurer, because it will have to be greater or less according to the quantity of gold that may be found. Or, should it seem preferable, your Highnesses might, for the space of one year, take one half, and the collector the other, and a better arrangement for the division be made afterward.
10. That if the said alcaldes or notaries shall commit or be privy to any fraud, punishment shall be provided, and the same for the colonists who shall not have declared all the gold they have.
11. That in the said island there shall be a treasurer, with a clerk to assist him, who shall

receive all the gold belonging to your Highnesses, and the alcaldes and notaries of the towns shall each keep a record of what they deliver to the said treasurer.

12. As, in the eagerness to get gold, every one will wish, naturally, to engage in its search in preference to any other employment, it seems to me that the privilege of going to look for gold ought to be withheld during some portion of each year, that there may be opportunity to have the other business necessary for the island performed.
13. In regard to the discovery of new countries, I think permission should be granted to all that wish to go, and more liberality used in the matter of the fifth, making the tax easier, in some fair way, in order that many may be disposed to go on voyages.

I will now give my opinion about ships going to the said Island of Espanola, and the order that should be maintained; and that is, that the said ships should only be allowed to discharge in one or two ports designated for the purpose, and should register there whatever cargo they bring or unload; and when the time for their departure comes, that they should sail from these same ports, and register all the cargo they take in, that nothing may be concealed.

In reference to the transportation of gold from the island to Castile, that all of it should be taken on board the ship, both that belonging to your Highnesses and the property of every one else; that it should all be placed in one chest with two locks, with their keys, and that the master of the vessel keep one key and some person selected by the governor and treasurer the other; that there should come with the gold, for a testimony, a list of all that has been put into the said chest, properly marked, so that each owner may receive his own; and that, for the faithful performance of this duty, if any gold whatsoever is found outside of the said chest in any way, be it little or much, it shall be forfeited to your Highnesses.

That all the ships that come from the said island shall be obliged to make their proper discharge in the port of Cadiz, and that no person shall disembark or other person be permitted to go on board until the ship has been visited by the person or persons deputed for that purpose, in the said city, by your Highnesses, to whom the master shall show all that he carries, and exhibit the manifest of all the cargo, it may be seen and examined if the said ship brings any thing hidden and not known at the time of lading.

That the chest in which the said gold has been carried shall be opened in the presence of the magistrates of the said city of Cadiz, and of the person deputed for that purpose by your Highnesses, and his own property be given to each owner. – I beg your Highnesses to hold me in your protection; and I remain, praying our Lord God for your Highnesses’ lives and the increase of much greater States.

Direct translation from original Spanish.