[Sca-cooks] fashion and spices (was Grains of Paradise)
Stefan li Rous
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Thu Dec 28 18:26:14 PST 2006
Regina suggested:
<<< I've always wondered if we don't see the dropping off of the
use of Grains
of Paradise because of this very thing. Wars in Africa which cut the
trade
routes so thoroughly and so long that people got out of the habit of
using
them. Real Pepper began to be available at a semi-reasonable price
so that
by the time Grains of Paradise came back there wasn't a market for
them. >>>
I think it might be exactly the opposite of this.
The taste of spices was appreciated, but they were also sought after
and used because they were rare and exotic and if you had money and
power you could have them and others couldn't. And you could flaunt
this.
I don't have the timelines in front of me, but I assume others such
as Bear do or can develop them. Towards the end of our period various
spices became more available because of new trade routes, changing
commercial situations and military alliances. The price then fell on
those spices and they lost some of their exoticness and uniqueness.
The end of our period is also when there was a big change in the use
of spices in food and how they were used. I don't think these are
unrelated. Of course this didn't happen suddenly nor consistently
across all spices. Some hung on to their allure longer because they
were rarer longer. Others because a higher portion of their appeal
was due to taste rather than their exoticness.
To try to draw some modern parallels:
How many people are buying the latest game machine, xbox,
Playstation3 etc. because they just have to have that increased
computing power or the new games? Many of those games have very few
games for them when they first come out. How many kids really need
that latest techno toy, such as Tickle Me, Elmo? and how many are
being bought by parents as status symbols.
Some people are buying those tech toys because when they are in
limited supply they can turn around and sell them on ebay for a tidy
profit. Hmmm, you don't think we can find period equivalents of that,
do you?
Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris Austin, Texas
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at: http://www.florilegium.org ****
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