ABSTRACT
The l'ortuguese did not reduce the Levantine spice trade to permanent insignificance. Although the flow of spices through the traditional routes of the Levant was severely checked during the first decades of the sixteenth century, it later found its way through the obstacles raised by the Portuguese. Even pepper again came through the Red Sea in approximately the volume of the years before the Portuguese opened their new route to India. This thesis was suggested by the following figures for the Venetian pepper exports from Alexandria, which were presented in the American Historical Review of January 1933:
Yearly average before Portuguese interference was felt about I, I 5 o,ooo lb. Eng.
