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"Spices were the first foods to be subjected to capitalist and imperialist processes of production and distribution." No. In the Roman Empire Garum (a fermente
by ucaetano 9y ago
"Spices were the first foods to be subjected to capitalist and imperialist processes of production and distribution."
No. In the Roman Empire Garum (a fermented fish sauce) was produced in industrial scale in the Iberian peninsula and exported as a luxury condiment all across the Empire.
Many other ingredients followed similar production and distribution.
- CobrastanJorji 9y agoI don't understand how Garum being an old sauce disproves the point. A salt-processing town that may be the oldest town in Europe dates to nearly 5000 BC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solnitsata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solnitsata
- AdamN 9y agoSolnitsata doesn't look like it was managed by an empire. Garum was.
- CobrastanJorji 9y agoBut Rome itself was also big into the salt trade. Heck, salt was an important ingredient in garum.
- ucaetano 9y agoSure, which disproves the claim even more.
- CobrastanJorji 9y agoI may be really confused here. How is it that Rome being involved in the salt trade disproves the claim that spices, like salt, were the first foods to be subjected to capitalist and imperialist processes of production and distribution?
- ucaetano 9y ago> spices, like salt That's the issue. Spices in the article refer to asian spices in the spice trade, unlike salt, chilli peppers, (which are not native to asia at all), Garum, etc.
- bllguo 9y agoNo? He literally compares salt to black pepper in the article.
- SmellyGeekBoy 9y agoSpices are plants. Salt is a mineral.
- Stefstefstef 9y agoSalt is not a spice, it's a salt. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spice
- ucaetano 9y agoClaim: "Spices were the first foods to be subjected to capitalist and imperialist processes of production and distribution." Evidence: Garum was subject to capitalist and imperialist processes of production and distribution before spices. Claim is therefore incorrect. That's before we get into the bullshit of "capitalist and imperialist processes".
- rootw0rm 9y agoGarum is pretty much a spice though. As the father of a half-Cambodian child, i can assure you that fermented fish sauces are treated like a spice and not a side dish.
- alistoriv 9y agoWhat, do capitalism and imperialism not exist? I think that the issue here is one of poor wording; spices weren't the first foods to be subjected to the processes of production and distribution, they were they first to be subjected to these processes in the context of capitalism and imperialism.
- ucaetano 9y ago> they were they first to be subjected to these processes in the context of capitalism and imperialism Garum was processed and distributed from Roman imperial colonies across the Roman Empire. And there is no such thing as "capitalist and imperialist processing and distribution". That's just made-up bullshit.
- alistoriv 9y agoI'm not convinced you actually understood my comment. I'm not saying that processing and distribution in the context of capitalism and imperialism are qualitatively different from processing and distribution in pre-capitalist society (although I'd say they are at least quantitatively different, and it would be an interesting discussion to have); I'm saying that it's possible the author intended to say that spices were the first to be subjected to these processes in the context of capitalism and imperialism, rather than the fairly ridiculous claim that spices were the first foods to be subject to the processes of production and distribution as implied by the original wording.
- orf 9y agoSounds pretty imperialist to me, not to mention the Romans where pretty big on the whole imperial thing (the word itself coming from them).