ABSTRACT
Ships and trade connected the world’s continents. The goods of the East, particularly spices and silks, found an insatiable market in Europe. Cloves, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, and mace were among the dozens of Asian commodities that Europeans purchased to flavor foods and transform into cosmetics, perfumes, medicines, dyes, and cleansers. The nobility and the middle classes purchased the great bulk of imported goods to improve the material quality of their lives, but also as signs of social status—that they had access to exotic lands on other sides of the world.
