Indian Ocean Spice Trade System

Timeline

1. c. 1500–1511Indian Ocean trade network (nodes such as Malacca, Calicut, Aden) · Indian OceanIn the early 16th century the Indian Ocean spice trade was run by multiple ethnic merchant groups: Southeast Asian Malay and Javanese merchants controlled transport from the Moluccas to Malacca; Indian Gujarati merchants dominated the trans-oceanic trunk route; Arab merchants monopolized exports from the Red Sea and Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. Spices usually passed through several middlemen and ports before reaching Europe, with prices doubling at each stage; city-states like Venice were the final European distribution centers.
2. 1511–1515Malacca, Hormuz, and India's west coast · Indian OceanPortugal captured Malacca in 1511 and took control of Hormuz in 1515; the Portuguese imposed the cartaz pass system, forcing Asian merchant ships to buy passes and pay duties at Portuguese ports. This severely disrupted traditional spice routes and cut the profits of many Muslim merchants. Some spice trade shifted to Aceh (northern Sumatra) and the Red Sea route; Portugal's monopoly attempt could not be fully realized due to the vastness of the region and limited maritime surveillance capacity.
3. 1515–1520Aceh, Aden, and the Red Sea coast · Red SeaFacing Portuguese control of traditional trade nodes, Muslim merchants actively opened the Aceh–Aden–Suez alternative route, and the Ottoman Empire also intervened in the Red Sea around 1516 to counter Portuguese expansion. The spice trade system did not collapse but reorganized its routes and commercial structure under competitive pressure, ultimately forming a complex pattern of Portuguese, Ottoman, and Asian local merchants coexisting, continuing until the arrival of the Dutch in the second half of the 16th century.