> But I was taught Europeans didn't covet Indian spices until way later. Why?
No idea why this was taught, but it was untrue. However it is somewhat true that most Europeans couldn't afford many spices until the 1600s, in this is a case where being supply constrained probably kept a cap on demand too.
The rise of Venice in the medieval era was due in large part to their carefully constructed trade monopoly for spices.
> Medieval high society had an insatiable appetite for spiced sauces, sweets, wine, and ale... In Mairano’s era, Venetian traders in London sold a pound of pepper for a sum equivalent to a week’s work for an unskilled laborer.[1]
Venice had agreements with the Ottoman empire for access to spices coming via the Spice Road as well as the rulers of Egypt (sometimes also Ottoman) for spices coming via the Red Sea.
It's true that Portuguese and Spanish exploration was partially fueled by a desire to avoid the Venetian monopoly on spices though:
> Bad news came in 1501, however, when word reached Venetian merchants that the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama had sailed around Africa to India, bypassing the Mediterranean and—so it was feared—diverting the flow of pepper away from Venice.
But the demand was always there - it was supply that was constrained.
No idea why this was taught, but it was untrue. However it is somewhat true that most Europeans couldn't afford many spices until the 1600s, in this is a case where being supply constrained probably kept a cap on demand too.
The rise of Venice in the medieval era was due in large part to their carefully constructed trade monopoly for spices.
> Medieval high society had an insatiable appetite for spiced sauces, sweets, wine, and ale... In Mairano’s era, Venetian traders in London sold a pound of pepper for a sum equivalent to a week’s work for an unskilled laborer.[1]
Venice had agreements with the Ottoman empire for access to spices coming via the Spice Road as well as the rulers of Egypt (sometimes also Ottoman) for spices coming via the Red Sea.
It's true that Portuguese and Spanish exploration was partially fueled by a desire to avoid the Venetian monopoly on spices though:
> Bad news came in 1501, however, when word reached Venetian merchants that the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama had sailed around Africa to India, bypassing the Mediterranean and—so it was feared—diverting the flow of pepper away from Venice.
But the demand was always there - it was supply that was constrained.
[1] https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-133/controller-confus...