Episode 1: It All Started with Pepper (I)
February 10, 2025
Mr. Gao Xiaosong, a famous musician and talk show host from China, once produced a program series featuring a unique book from the ancient China—The Plum in the Golden Vase or Chin Ping Mei, also known as The Golden Lotus.
Most Chinese men, upon hearing the name of this book, will give a knowing smile, but I bet most of them have never read the book or have only read selected chapters, as the book is not at all a guidebook to newlyweds. Explicit descriptions of sex scenes, which have made the book famous, account for less than one percent of its total content. Instead, it offers a highly realistic and direct depiction of civil life in the Ming Dynasty.
However, the topic of my program is the United States of America, why do I bring up the book Chin Ping Mei?
The reason is very simple. Even though the author of the book couldn’t possibly know that a country called the U.S. would exist in the future, he did describe a phenomenon, and the issue disclosed by this phenomenon happens to be one of the most important catalysts that led to the birth of the United States of America.
Now, Let’s first take a look at what the author described in the book.
In chapter sixteen of the book, one of the main characters, Li Ping’er, after her husband passes away, wants to remarry a rascal named Xi Menqing. She says to him: “In the tea chest over there behind my bed, I’ve got forty pounds of aloeswood, two hundred pounds of white wax, two jars of quicksilver, and eighty pounds of pepper hidden away. Take it all out and sell it for me, and you can use the money to help pay for your house-building expenses.”
Lying within this dialogue is a tiny clue that reveals very important information: Pepper was extremely expensive at that time, as costly as luxurious commodities like aloeswood. People as well-off as Li Ping’er would store it as valuable goods. The proceeds from selling eighty pounds of pepper could cover part of the cost of building a house for wealthy men like Xi Menqing.
If we follow this clue and trace it back in time, we will see that it was this economic and geopolitical phenomenon, which, at its core, can be illustrated by the four words “pepper is extremely expensive.” that created a powerful force and pushed the development of modern history forward.
The lead character of our story, the United States of America—often regarded as the new Roman Empire—was, in fact, an empire built upon the power of pepper.
So, how did pepper drive history forward and contribute to the creation of the U.S.?
二
Pepper, along with aniseed, Sichuan pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, fennel, etc., were commonly referred to as “Spice” in ancient times.
Nowadays, it’s possible that one can’t afford to buy pork. But if you claim you can’t pay for a handful of pepper or aniseed, people will know you are just joking
But in ancient China, not many people could afford spices. At that time, most spices were imported. Hu in Hu Jiao (the Chinese name for pepper) means foreign. You can tell by the name that Chinese farmers didn’t grow pepper.
At that time, the places of origin for almost all spices were Southeast Asia, an area now comprising Malaysia, India, and Sri Lanka. Since they had to be transported to in-land China from thousands of miles away and by sea, it was no wonder spices were expensive. But “expensive” is a relative term. Compared to how much it cost in Europe in the 15th century, the price of spices in the contemporary Ming dynasty was quite reasonable.
If you were in Europe during the 15th century, you might encounter the following interesting scene: a farmer exchanges a bag of dark stuff for several oxen, then goes into the city and buys a house with this bag of stuff. This mythical dark stuff was, of course, pepper. In the 15th century, one pepper could often be exchanged for gold of equal size. Sometimes, a single pepper could even be traded for one gold coin. Yes, you heard that right: one pepper, not a handful of pepper, for one gold coin.
In other words, its value far exceeded gold, as it could be exchanged for gold that was much bigger in size and heavier in weight. According to the historical records we have today, the price difference for pepper between the West and East was jaw-droppingly huge, often over 10,000 times. One could only say that when it came to the price of pepper at that time, the sky was the limit.
If Li Ping’er had taken the 80 pounds of pepper she had stored away to Europe, she would have been so wealthy that she wouldn’t have needed to entice Xi Menqing with dowry. Instead, she might have thought twice and asked herself: how many peppers was a guy like Xi Menqing worth?
三
Why was spice so expensive, then? The answer is very simple, and we don’t need an economist to explain it. An ancient Chinese idiom sums it up: “Scarcity makes a commodity precious”
Simply put: High demand and scarce supply.
Let’s first talk about high demand. Spices have been used for a variety of purposes in Europe, but we must correct a common misconception first. Some scholars before the 18th century had a theory that Europeans in medieval times needed large quantity of spices as antiseptic and deodorant for fish and meat. In their view, Medieval Europeans lived such a miserable life that they had to eat rotten meat and fish due to a lack of food. Spices could delay the rotting process, and should one have to gobble down spoiled meat, spices would certainly make it easier to do so.
We don’t need to go through the historical record to see that there is a logical flaw in this theory. Spices were way more expensive than fresh meat. For the rich, who could afford spices, why would they use expensive spice to preserve fresh meat when they can simply purchase fresh meat with just a fractional cost of spices. This was certainly not a smart deal. As for the poor, who couldn’t afford fresh meat, spices were way out of reach. Therefore, the theory of using large quantities of spice to preserve meat doesn’t hold up.
However, the number one reason for the large consumption of spice during medieval European times was indeed related to food.
In the Chinese way of cooking meat, a few peppers or Sichuan pepper are often enough, and other than steaming, boiling, and stewing, cooking methods such as pan-frying, stir-frying, and deep frying don’t necessarily require spices.
But if you’ve ever been to a Western restaurant and ordered a beef fillet or steak, you will likely notice a thick layer of sauce poured over the cooked beef. In upscale restaurants, you may even see several cracked-open peppers inside the sauce. The need for pepper is astonishingly high in the Western cooking.
Recipe books in Europe published at that time may have contained recipes for hundreds of dishes and the final step for most of them was to ‘sprinkle pepper before serving.’ It could almost be said that one could hardly have a meal without spices.
Another reason spices were in huge demand at that time was that Europeans had special uses for them according to their customs. For example, since ancient Greek and Roman times, there was a tradition among wealthy people to burn cinnamon at funerals, as it was believed that the scent of burning cinnamon was holy and could resurrect a dead soul. Nero, the most infamous Tyrant of Rome, notorious for his brutality and countless horrible acts, was also a very sentimental person. After his second wife, Poppaea, died, he had a huge pyre of cinnamon burned at her funeral. The burning lasted through the entire night. Willing to spend a fortune for her soul, Nero’s love for Poppaea must have been true.
Well, besides food and customs, what else did the Europeans need spices for？
To be continued.