Jan-Maat’s Reviews > De Middellandse Zee: De Samenleving en de Staat, deel #2 > Status Update

Jan-Maat
Jan-Maat is on page 219 of 679
Pepper. I woke up in the dark hours of last night thinking about this. On the XVIth century Portugal controlled the supply of pepper to Europe. In 1586 Phillip II signed a contract for a consortium to buy up that pepper for wholsale into European countries at a fixed rate. The consortium had 20 shares, 7 of which were held by the Fuggers - a German banking family
— Feb 13, 2026 09:09AM
De Middellandse Zee: De Samenleving en de Staat, deel #2 (2 van 3)

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Jan-Maat
Jan-Maat is on page 438 of 679
Braudel cites a 1940s book about Dante which argues that the legendary voyages of Saint Brenden are an Irish version of the voyages of sinbad the sailer.

I believe the manuscript history of St.Brenden stories predates the Sinbad tradition which complicates matters slightly...
— Feb 21, 2026 01:07PM
De Middellandse Zee: De Samenleving en de Staat, deel #2 (2 van 3)


Jan-Maat
Jan-Maat is on page 413 of 679
The slow process of change and cultural adoption. Use of Arabic numerals forbidden in Florence-1299, likewise in Freiburg in 1520, used in Antwerp only from the end of the 16th century.

Spread of paper, Bagdad 794, 11th century Valencia and Greece, western europe from circa 1350

'Spanish' men's fashion that emerged 14th century stemmed from Siberia while the women's fashions from Cyprus came from Tang China
— Feb 21, 2026 01:09AM
De Middellandse Zee: De Samenleving en de Staat, deel #2 (2 van 3)


Jan-Maat
Jan-Maat is on page 412 of 679
Braudel says that even now (ie 1960s) the lifestyle in Croatia, despite being mixed with many other influences, is like that in Italy, although of an Italy of long ago.

Here I would have liked some examples - which even the footnotes deny me.
— Feb 20, 2026 12:58PM
De Middellandse Zee: De Samenleving en de Staat, deel #2 (2 van 3)


Jan-Maat
Jan-Maat is on page 402 of 679
Coffee arrived in Constantinople around 1550, in venice about 1580, it only reach France and England in the 17th century (Marseille- 1646)
— Feb 19, 2026 01:00PM
De Middellandse Zee: De Samenleving en de Staat, deel #2 (2 van 3)


Jan-Maat
Jan-Maat is on page 391 of 679
Bandits might be supportrd by the local nobility, in.some regions relations seem particularly close - catalonia, southern Italy and Sicily, the papal states.
— Feb 17, 2026 01:00PM
De Middellandse Zee: De Samenleving en de Staat, deel #2 (2 van 3)


Jan-Maat
Jan-Maat is on page 308 of 679
The Ottoman Turks defeat the Mamluks by using artillery (the mamluks apparently thought it was a dishonourable weapon and so shunned it). Artillery was the basis Braudel notes for the success of France, Muscovy (against Kazan at least), and Spain against Granada.
— Feb 15, 2026 12:15PM
De Middellandse Zee: De Samenleving en de Staat, deel #2 (2 van 3)


Jan-Maat
Jan-Maat is on page 297 of 679
At the end of the 14th century the Mediterranean belonged to the cities and the city states, larger states like the Byzantine empireand the kingdom of Aragón were the product of their large cities.
This situation changed completelyduring the 15th century
— Feb 15, 2026 12:55AM
De Middellandse Zee: De Samenleving en de Staat, deel #2 (2 van 3)


Jan-Maat
Jan-Maat is on page 279 of 679
English Levant company between 1581 and 1592 was making profits of up to 300%; but in 1595 the company was operating 15 ships with a total crew of 790. Mainly sailing to Egypt, Cyprus, and the Aegean. Less often to Venice and Algiers.

Presumably mostly smaller vessels buying high value luxury goods - spices, carpets, silk
— Feb 14, 2026 04:24AM
De Middellandse Zee: De Samenleving en de Staat, deel #2 (2 van 3)


Jan-Maat
Jan-Maat is on page 262 of 679
Importing grain from distant countries was a clear sign of overall prosperity, although it was catastrophic for the poor.
— Feb 14, 2026 03:33AM
De Middellandse Zee: De Samenleving en de Staat, deel #2 (2 van 3)


Jan-Maat
Jan-Maat is on page 242 of 679
In Portugal grain was pushed out by vines and olive trees. Grain was increasingly imported from Flanders and the Baltic region - this trade was conducted by Bretons who sold the grain in Lisbon for gold.

Later the Bretons were also transporting grain to Galicia
— Feb 14, 2026 01:13AM
De Middellandse Zee: De Samenleving en de Staat, deel #2 (2 van 3)


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message 1: by Jan-Maat (new) - added it
Feb 13, 2026 09:25AM

Jan-Maat Cont. Anyway, the Fuggers weren't keen, possibly because they didn't have a distribution network, possibly because they had lost money doing business with the Hapsburgs earlier in the century. They sold out their interest to the Evora's - a Portuguese new Christian family (ie they were converts from Judaism at some point) who were associated with the families in the consortium who handled the wholesale trade in to Spain.
In 1591 they moved 14,000 quintals of pepper (14,000,000 kilos) in to Germany via Lübeck (which is an interesting choice itself). And that is how pepper from Asia got into the European pepper mill in the late XVIth century


message 2: by P.E. (new)
Feb 14, 2026 07:06AM

P.E. That was an engrossing little travelogue in itself, thanks for sharing the intricacies of the pepper routes to Europe! :)


message 3: by Jan-Maat (new) - added it
Feb 14, 2026 11:56AM

Jan-Maat P.E. wrote: "That was an engrossing little travelogue in itself, thanks for sharing the intricacies of the pepper routes to Europe! :)"

Oh that is only the half of it - pepper was still coming in via the original classic route up the Red Sea into Egypt.

In a few years it was all going to change when the Dutch started to push the Portuguese out of the east Indies and dominated the spice trade to Europe


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