HOW THE WEST FOUND CINNAMON

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 261, 31 July 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

HOW THE WEST FOUND CINNAMON

A Carefully Guarded Secret As the dawn came up over the harbour, one morning more than 400 years ago ’a little boat raised sail and set out from the coast of Portugal to solve a strange, and exciting mystery. Not many months before. Vasco da Gama had returned from his exploratory trip around the tip end of Africa with pt oof that India and the islands of the East Indies could be reached by water its well as by the long, difficult overland route through the deserts of Egypt and Arabia. This knowledge had kindled hopes and stirred up dreams in the hearts of the most adventurous Portuguese sailors —dreams of valuable silks, gold, jewels and—cinnamon. , Yes, it was cinnamon, a spice you buy so nonchalantly at the store for a few pennies, that these sailors were most interested in. Cinnamon had been known and used as a food flavouring and as an ingredient in perfumes for almost 4000 years. Yet it was a mystery. ~, , The Chinese Emperor Shen Nuns,, Who lived about 2700 8.C., mentioned cinnamon in his herb book, and it was well known in Egypt as early as 1600 B.C. The Greeks and Romans obtained it from Arab traders, yet no cinnamon trees were ever found in Arabia. This gave rise to many fabulous myths as to where and how it grew. The wily Arabs, however, knew all the time where cinnamon grew,, but purposely shrouded their activities in mystery. They obtained the valuable spice from the natives in India, Ceylon and perhaps even China, and transported it by caravan and boat to Greece and Rome. During the reign of Augustus, Roman merchants invested about 403,000 pounds annually in cinnamon, figuring on 100 per cent, profit. At one time cinnamon sold for £5 a pound, and was one of the most valuable articles of commerce being exported from Asia. With the rise of Western European Powers, the Venetians gradually came to control the lucrative cinnamon trade, but the spice was still obtained through the Arabs 'and Its origin still a mystery. Few Europeans adventured further east than the Red Sea, for the Arabs and Egyptians were not friendly to Occidental travellers. It was no wonder, then, that these sailors setting out from Portugal entertained exciting dreams and hopes. Then one day an off-shore breeze wafted a subtle, spicy odour toward the ship. The sailors sniffed, then sniffed again. Cinnamon! It was unmistakably cinnamon. As the air grew heavier and heavier with the scent, the vague outlines of land appeared on the horizon the outlines of Ceylon. The Portuguese sailors found great forests of cinnamon trees growing wild on the island, some of them reaching a height of 40 feet, others kept cut to about 15 feet. They built a fort on the present site of Colombo to- protect themselves against the who opposed their landing, and shortly afterward made a treaty with the King of Kandv, the most powerful native chieftain on the island. They agreed to assist him and his successors in maintaining his position as leader in return for 124,000 pounds of cinnamon annually. Soon more Portuguese ships came to Ceylon to fill their l“ ol(ls wilh cinnamon, and still more, until the sailors who’ dared the Cape of Good Hope controlled the lucrative spice trade in all Europe. But after nearly a century Dutch trading ships began to appear on the Indian Ocean ami Dutch traders began to land on Ceylon. They visited the incumbent King of Kandy, bearing gifts and promises, ami this chieftain, wearied of the Portuguese, agreed to sell to the Dutch East India Company all the cinnamon he could collect in his kingdom. The Portuguese refused to abide by this ruling, and after a long contest a treaty of peace was signed whereby both nations were to share the cinnamon crop equally. The treaty was not in effect very long, however, and in 1658 the Portuguese were expelled from the island. The Dutch, in attempting to hold a monopoly on the trade made strenuous efforts to cultivate the cinnamon tree and to restrict its growth to Ceylon, although the spice had been discovered on neighbouring islands and also on the mainland. But the strict laws regarding cultivation and cutting so retarded planting and harvesting that the annual yield rapidly dropped to almost nothing. Finally in 1796, however, when the English captured Ceylon they put an end to the Cinammon abuses. Since then the tree has been freely and extensively cultivated not only in Ceylon, but along the Malabar coast and in other sections of Asia. Although four hundred years have elapsed since the groves of Ceylon were first discovered by wiiite men, the manner of harvesting cinnamon is much the same. The whole tree contains the flavour of cinnamon and every part—roots, leaves, bark, fruit—is turned to some purpose. The cinnamon used as a food flavouring comes from the bark, the quality of which varies with its position on the tree and the locality in which the tree is growing. -Some bark is poor and woody. Some is so hard that it cannot be cut with :m ordinary steel knife. The best quality is thin and brittle, and comes from the middle of the branch or stalk. Among the processes involved in manufacture is that of testing and sorting. which is done by the tasting and chewing of samples—a very disagreeable task. A taster cannot .last at his occupation more than two or three days at a time.