History of Cloves

Like the history of many spices, the history of cloves goes back many centuries. In fact, this spice was one of the first to be traded and evidence of cloves have been found in vessels dating as far back as 1721 BC. Native to the Malucca Islands, as many spices are, cloves were once a treasured commodity prized by the Ancient Romans.

But it wasn’t just the Romans who enjoyed cloves. The Chinese were said to use them as far back as 226 BC. Apparently they chewed the flowerettes prior to having an audience with the Emperor so that their breath would not smell bad.

Along with nutmeg, cloves were one of the most precious spices of the 16th and 17th century, and control of them spurred expeditions as well as wars. In 1522, Magellan returned from his fateful trip around the world with a ship loaded with cloves and nutmeg, much to the delight of Spain. Of course, everyone wanted in on the trade since cloves were worth more than their weight in gold. In 1605 the Dutch found their way to the Moluccas and dipped their hand into the spice trade.

In fact, the Dutch wanted a monopoly on cloves, so they went about destroying clove trees that sprouted up anywhere outside of their control. This ended up causing quite an uprising because native tradition was to plant a clove tree upon the birth of a child and the life of the tree was psychologically tied directly to that of the child. If something happened to the tree, that did not bode well for the particular child with whom it was associated. The native islanders came to hate the Dutch wherever they extended their tree burning campaign.

But monopolies never lasts forever. It didn’t take long for others to try their hands at the clove trade. By the 18th century cloves were being grown in other places including Zanzibar, Madagascar, Brazil, Mauritius, Ternate, Tidore and Tanzania, among other places. With the disolution of the trade monopoly, the price of cloves came down and eventually, it became a favorite spice for all classes of society, the world over.

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