[Sca-cooks] FW: Elizabethans using Platina and proper cookware

[Terry Decker]

The primary source for spices in Elizabethean England was the Lisbon spice 
market, however English traders also traded with the Arabs in North Africa 
for sugar aand spices and were already moving into the Spice Islands by the 
time of Francis Drake's circumnavigation (1577-1580).  The Lisbon spice 
market was closed to the English and the Dutch in 1594 forcing the founding 
of the Dutch East India Company that year and the formation of the English 
East India Company (chartered December 31, 1600).

Following Vasco da Gama's successful voyage of 1497-98, Lisbon became a 
major spice port in Europe.  Dealing directly with Portuguese factories in 
India, they were able to cut prices and reduce the power of Venice, who had 
the Alexandians as middlemen.  In 1536, the Portuguese took Sri Lankha and 
effective control of the cinnamon trade.  They controlled the trade until 
1658, when the Dutch seized the island.

Bear

> I'm working on researching my cinnamon, pepper, and other spices for how I
> would
> have obtained them.  I'm assuming I would have purchased them form a 
> spicer
> in London.  I want to know HOW they would have come to London.
>
>
> Dame Arwen Lioncourt  OP