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> For the next 250 years, despite the best efforts of the English to free themselves from this commercial yoke, the secret of that prodigious dye remained unkno
by buran77 6y ago
> For the next 250 years, despite the best efforts of the English to free themselves from this commercial yoke, the secret of that prodigious dye remained unknown to all but a select fortunate few of Spanish producers. But no production secret can stay that way forever, and so in the closing years of the eighteenth century, British spies succeeded in spiriting away the tightly kept formula: in order to obtain the longed-for carmine, you needed cochineals, and to get cochineals you had to have prickly pears.
History makes this point again and again, spying seems to be the best way every superpower kickstarted many of their efforts.
- boomboomsubban 6y agoWhile it did happen numerous times, it's also going to be repeated far more often than "eventually the British figured it out independently/bought the secret." Superpowers like to boast about their achievements after all.
- ajuc 6y agoI find it highly unlikely they couldn't solve this mystery for 250 years given that a similar insect - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_cochineal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_cochineal was used for producing very similar dye in Central and Eastern Europe for centuries already at that point, and was one of the main exports of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (till the imported dye won over because of higher yields = cheaper price). To this point the month June in Polish ("czerwiec") and the color red ("czerwony") are derived from the word "czerw" which means "worm".
- ivanbakel 6y agoThe two insects don't seem to be that closely related, and red dye comes from a variety of sources. Besides, even if the English suspected that there was some kind of Mexican cochineal, the mystery of how to farm it would still be a problem. >till the imported dye won over because of higher yields = cheaper price I'd be interested to know if this is true, or if the imported dye was more valuable for being a brighter colour. Do you have a source? Wikipedia is not specific about the reason for the decline in demand of Polish cochineal.
- DubiousPusher 6y agoIt could be they knew it was an insect but couldn't discern which one. There are after all tens to hundreds of thousands of new world insect species. It also could be a Gladwellian over fancification.