The Spice Route
People
have been sailing to Kerala in search of spices, sandalwood and
ivory for at least 2000 years. Long before Vasco da Gama led the
Portuguese to India, the coast had been known to the Phoenicians,
then the Romans and later the Arabs and Chinese. The Arabs initially
controlled the shipment of spices to Europe, which motivated the
Portuguese to find a sea route to India to break the Arab monopoly.
In those days Kerala was not only a spice centre in its own right,
but a trans-shipment point for spices from Malacca. It was through
Kerala that Chinese products and ideas found their ways to the west.
Coastal
Kerala is a part of the well-known spice route, which connects the
Europe with South East Asian countries. Traders from China,
Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia used Kodungalloor (Cranganore)
as their port. This in turn helped traders in Kerala, by creating a
wide exposure to the spices and other produce.
