Spice Trade Routes

Timeline

1. -500–600Aden and India's west coast · Arabian PeninsulaFrom the Greco-Roman era, spices such as pepper were transshipped by Indian and Arab merchants to the Red Sea–Mediterranean world, forming an early prototype of Indian Ocean spice trade, with production sites as far as Southeast Asia and South Asia.
2. 1321–1330Moluccas and Java · IndonesiaIn the 1320s, cloves and nutmeg from the Moluccas were carried north by Javanese jong ships and Indian–Arab merchant vessels to ports in India, Persia, and China, with Majapahit exercising political influence over production sites and shipping.
3. 1400–1511Malacca · MalaysiaThe Malacca Sultanate controlled the strategic strait, becoming the entrepôt for pepper and Southeast Asian spices bound north for China; Zheng He's fleets and Malacca envoys exchanged visits, tightly binding the spice trade to the tributary system.
4. 1511–1800Banda Islands · IndonesiaColonial powers such as Portugal and the Netherlands directly controlled spice production sites and routes; the Dutch East India Company established a monopoly in the Banda Islands, and the traditional Indian Ocean–Southeast Asia spice trade network was absorbed into the colonial global economic system.