The Scents of Eden: A History of the Spice Trade [Paperback]

Charles Corn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 1999

Clothed in mystery and lost in uncharted seas, the Spice Islands of the early sixteenth century tantalized European imagination to the point of obsession. As the only place on Earth where grew the "holy trinity" of spices-cloves, nutmeg, and mace-these minuscule islands quickly became a wellspring of international intrigue and personal fortune, occasioning the rise and fall of nations across the globe. It is the history of these islands, their mystique, and the men who tried to tame them, that is the fascinating bounty of THE SCENTS OF EDEN.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The spice trade of Southeast Asia was hotly contested among European powers between the 16th and 19th centuries and was at the heart of the early colonization competition among them. Centering first on the cloves, nutmeg, and mace of the Moluccas, it rapidly expanded to other spices grown throughout the region. Corn, an American travel writer, has assembled a remarkably seamless narrative of the trade, stringing together Portuguese, Dutch, British, and, finally, American efforts. Especially well done is the final section describing the pepper trade that flourished briefly between the island of Sumatra and Salem, Massachusetts. Much is published about our trade problems with Asia today; this book provides some needed historical perspective to show that it was never an easy matter. The result will appeal to both history buffs and armchair travelers, and Corn's "notes and sources" will please area specialists.?Harold Otness, Southern Oregon Univ. Lib., Ashland
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

For those for whom the Spice Islands conjure romantic visions of South Seas paradise, intrigue, and piracy, this book will not be a letdown. Covering the age of exploration, it is an informal history of the European invasion and the islanders' futile resistance, ending with the U.S. presence in the islands in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Corn (Distant Islands: Travels across Indonesia, 1991) takes the reader from the founding of Malacca by Sumatran refugees right through the successive waves of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and English invasions (the first English colony in the world, on the tiny island of Pulau Run, gave them a presence in the area, which they relinquished in 1667 at the Peace of Breda in exchange for Manhattan). Corn details the roles of such figures as Magellan, Francis Xavier, the infamous Jan Pieterszoon Coen, and Francis Drake. But this book is more than a chronicle of voyages and invasions as Corn endeavors to show how the spice trade was the catalyst of the expanding world economy, the bridge between feudalism and capitalism. Frank Caso --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha USA (April 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568362498
• ISBN-13: 978-1568362496
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #393,033 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #81 in Books > Business & Investing > International > Exports & Imports

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Cornucopia (Pardon The Pun) Of Well-Told Tales, October 1, 1999

By 

Bruce Loveitt (Ogdensburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Scents of Eden: A History of the Spice Trade (Paperback)

I just finished "Nathaniel's Nutmeg" last week and since I had not yet had my fill of spices I decided to keep right on going with this book. It was a good decision. Both books are excellent. "Nathaniel's Nutmeg" covers a shorter period of time and the author is mainly interested in the power struggle between the Dutch and English. In "The Scents of Eden", Mr. Corn uses a broader canvas. He gives information about the Portuguese, who preceded the other countries. He provides interesting character sketches of Magellan and other explorers, which you might have expected to find in a book such as this, but he also traces the exploits of the Jesuit, Francis Xavier. The book then moves into the battle between the Dutch and the English and we get interesting little asides, such as at the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh when Sir Walter asked to run his finger along the executioner's blade and then quipped: "This is sharp medicine, but it is a sure cure for all diseases." Mr. Corn continues past the struggle between Holland and England and gives some interesting information about the entrance of the United States into the spice trade and the rise of Salem (yes, that Salem!) as a major player in pepper. I also learned that in 1873 the Dutch started a war in the East Indies against Aceh. This struggle continued for 40 years and Holland lost 250,000 men. I consider myself pretty well read but I had never known anything about this. The book is full of interesting things like this but don't get the impression that it is dry or boring. Mr. Corn is equally adept at giving well crafted descriptions of men and scenery and life aboard ship. You will be both educated and entertained. What more could you want?

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hellish Journeys to Paradise, July 15, 2001

By 

Carool Kersten - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Scents of Eden: A History of the Spice Trade (Paperback)

"In The Scents of Eden: A History of the Spice Trade" American writer Charles Corn dishes up a pungent tale of the West's involvement in the eastern spice trade. Although the use of these condiments can be traced back to antiquity, the history of the origins of its commerce is sketchy at best. Until the arrival of the European explorers on the coast of East Indies, the trade had been firmly in the hands of Indian nakhodas and the real-life alter ego's of Sindbad the Sailor for centuries. Hardly any accounts of their exploits survive, at least not in any language accessible to the author.

In the wake of their victory over the last Muslim vestiges on the Iberian Peninsula, Portuguese navigators set out to find their own way to the riches of the orient. By obtaining them at their source they would ensure that the dazzling profits to be made in this business would solely be theirs. In this first part of his historical account, Corn introduces a number of colorful characters: swaggering adventurers of a type later immortalized by Joseph Conrad in "Lord Jim", as well as zealots like the warrior-priest Francis Xavier, whose proselytizing efforts took him all over Asia. Thus we are presented with an animated image of early European colonialism, an era in which the protagonists served both treasury and the cross.

Much gloomier is the picture painted of the next phase of European exploits. In an attempt to obtain a unchallenged monopoly over the trade in both pepper and the `holy trinity of spices': clove, nutmeg and mace, the merchants of the Dutch Republic have no qualms about exterminating the native population of the isles or subjecting their competitors to unspeakable cruelty. The figure of Jan Pietersz. Coen, a dour accountant turned Governor General, looms large over this episode, serving as the archetype of the unscrupulous East India Company official. Unfeeling and clinical, he sees terror as a tool to reach his objective: total Dutch control over all trade in the Far East. With surgical precision he executes his plans. His letters to the company directors back home in the Netherlands read like present-day management reports, in which the firing of thousands of workers and the muscling-out of competitors of a market are rendered in the same benign prose. While he retains a certain sympathy for Portuguese and English, the Dutch - to Corn - are insensitive, greedy, amoral, in short: plain evil.

But it must be said: Corn spins a magnificent yarn. It is unfortunate that, towards the end of the third part of the book - dedicated to the American participation in the global spice trade, he derails into a moralistic tale, in which the New England merchants and skippers from Salem, Massachusetts, are cast in the unlikely role of `Hollywood' white knights. Here Corn puts his credibility as a competent historian in jeopardy. While one of the contemporary actors in the episode displays a willingness to accept that not all of his fellow countrymen were of unblemished repute, Corn wants nothing of that. So when, after his ship has been hijacked by the Malays, Captain Charles Endicott surmises that this may be the result of the practices of certain dishonest American traders, Corn rejects this out of hand as he writes: `this speculation on Endicott's part is unconvincing. A more likely explanation is that three centuries of infidel European colonization in the Indies - the successive waves of Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and English - had bred a profound distrust of Christian Europeans on the part of Muslim Malays in a part of the world where word spread across the waters with the wind [...] The straight-talking, square-dealing sons of Salem had not earned the natives' contempt 250 years later, they merely inherited it from their predecessors."

At first it seems that Corn has fallen victim to the kind of naivité or innocence he wants to celebrate in his heroes. But as he elaborates further on the episode and the ensuing punitive campaign organized by the US navy, one can not dispel the thoght that the author is actually employing the incident as the paradigm for future American interventions elsewhere in the world: protecting American interests overseas is (always) done for morally sound reasons. In underlying message seems to be that in its current, self-appointed role as the world's policeman, the US is confronted with the consequences of wrongs committed by others. And so a well-told `tale of sea' suddenly appears to get political undertones. What a pity.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An Inconsistent History of the Spice Trade, September 2, 2002

By 

John Thomson (Kansas City) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Scents of Eden: A History of the Spice Trade (Paperback)

Charles Corn's "The Scents of Eden" seeks to document the history of the spice trade, focusing on the control of a few key islands in the East Indies where the historically most valuable spices (notably cloves and nutmeg) originated. Corn's effort is a little spotty: I found him both interesting and readable in some places, and neither in many other places.

I think about 60% of this book presents interesting and relevant material, but the remaining 40% felt like filler to me. The portions of the book where Corn discusses the key spice-producing islands, their discovery and the imperialistic practices that controlled them, were generally very interesting, and read quickly and with satisfaction. Moreover, I found Corn's writing style generally pleasant to read, and appropriate (or at least acceptable) for "popular" history. The early chapters were among the better ones.

However, Corn doesn't seem to have enough material to make all 319 pages interesting, or perhaps the topic just isn't robust enough for that much book. Either way, I found many chapters off topic, and felt like I was suffering through a droning lecture. For example, Corn provides long descriptions of Amsterdam, London and Salem, none of which seemed more than peripherally relevant to me. More irritating was a rather gratuitous description of Dutch atrocities to both native inhabitants and other pesky Europeans (most notably, the English). While these seemed well documented (among the best documented material Corn presents), I thought he'd made his point adequately in earlier discussions of the topic, and this elaboration didn't seem to add anything to the book.

For my money, "The Scents of Eden" isn't polished enough to make for a serious academic work, and isn't interesting or consistent enough to be top shelf "popular" history. While it had its moments, I found myself struggling through mediocre material in the later parts. And the abundance of chapters that I found off-topic made me question the significance of the entire subject. If you're considering reading this, you may enjoy the book somewhat, but I'd recommend something by Tuchman or Gleeson well ahead of this book.