The Spice Route: A History - Softcover

'An enthralling and erudite history of the spice trade' -- Traveller 'A typically droll and beautifully wrought book' -- Literary Review 'A springy, fresh feel!The Spice Route is what happens when you match a writer at the top of his form with a fashionable subject!The result is tremendous.' -- Literary Review-Nick Smith 'Absorbing' -- Scotsman 'A delightful, scholarly and thoroughly readable account' -- Geographical 20050508 'Serves up a feast of detail on a fascinating and little-known subject' -- Sunday Telegraph 20050731 'Its digressiveness is also a boon, allowing Keay to touch on everything' -- FT MAgazine 20050814 'Keay more sharply than romantically points up the economic basis of historic trade wars over three millenia.' -- The Times 20050716 'Fascinating new history' -- Daily Telegraph 20050716 'Keay's retelling of the tale is restrained yet powerful, his choice of facts compelling' -- Guardian 20050910 'Keay has produced another scrupulously researched, persuasive book.' -- TLS 20050910 'One of the clearest explanations of the oldest example of global trade and its cultural and political ramifications.' -- South China Morning Post 20060604 'Keay's history! begins with romance and wonder, before it gives way to the adventure and violence of the age of maritime exploration.' -- Independent:Laurence Phelan 20060618 'Keay crosses centuries as confidently as the great tea-clippers once coursed oceans. He writes elegant, exemplary prose, and this book is as full of bounty as any 18th-century privateer could pray for.' -- The Times: Ross Leckie 20060617 'Consistently interesting.' -- Robert Colville, Observer/Review 20060619 'A fascinating tale packed with eye-catching detail.' -- Independent 20060619 'Impressively researched' -- Guardian 20060708 'Fascinating! covering 3000 years of history in well-written, easy-to-read prose!The book is full of wonderful facts! Quite a lot to discuss. Exploitation, greed, values. All grist to a reading group's mill' -- Margaret Burgess, NewBooksMag 20060708

An exotic saga with the tang of drama in every voyage, The Spice Route transports the reader from the dawn of history to the ends of the earth The Spice Route is one of history's great anomalies. Shrouded in mystery, it existed long before anyone knew of its extent or alignment. Spices came from lands unseen, possibly uninhabitable, and almost by definition unattainable; that was what made them so desirable. Yet more livelihoods depended on this pungent traffic, more nations participated in it, more wars were fought over it, and more discoveries resulted from it than from any other global exchange. In a bid to discover and exploit the spice route, mankind first passed beyond his known horizons to probe the limits of our planet. Epic was the quest, and in this major new study, epic is the treatment as John Keay pieces together a historical process that spans three millennia and a geographical progression that encircles the world.