that this was one reason for the sailing of the junks to the Malabar coast in the 2d century B. C. and probably earlier. In Marco Polo's day the tonnage of the junks was calculated according to their capacity in baskets of pepper; and he found (II, lxxxii) "for one shipload of pepper that goes to Alexandria or elsewhere, destined for Christendom, there come a hundred such, aye and more too, to this haven of Zayton" (Chwan-chau, above Amoy).
The trade in pepper in the time of the Roman Empire brought the merchants unheard-of profits just as it did later the Genoese and Venetians. It was one of the most important articles of commerce between India and Rome, supplying perhaps three-quarters of the total bulk of the average westbound cargo.
The constant use of pepper in the most expensive Roman cookery is reflected in its price, quoted by Pliny (XII, 14) as 15 denarii, or about $2.55 per lb.
Among the offerings by the emperor Constantine to the church under St. Silvester, were costly vessels and fragrant gums and spices, including frankincense, nard, balsam, storax, myrrh, cinnamon, saffron and pepper.
That it continued in high esteem is shown by the terms offered by Alaric for raising the siege of Rome: "the immediate payment of 5,000 lbs. of gold, of 30,000 lbs. of silver, of 4,000 robes of silk, of 3,000 pcs. of fine scarlet cloth, and of 3,000 lbs. weight of pepper." (Gibbon, Decline and Fall, III, 271–2.)
Pliny, indeed, expresses surprise at the taste that brought it into so great favor (XII, 14): "It is quite surprising that the use of pepper has come so much into fashion, seeing that in other substances which we use, it is sometimes their sweetness, and sometimes their appearance that has attracted our notice; whereas, pepper has nothing in it that can plead as a recommendation to either fruit or berry, its only desirable quality being a certain pungency; and yet it is for this that we import it all the way from India! Who was the first to make trial of it as an article of food? And who, I wonder, was the man that was not content to prepare himself by hunger only for the satisfying of a greedy appetite?"
In mediaeval Europe the trade was highly organized, the spice being handled especially by merchants called "pepperers;" and the prices quoted in Rogers' History of Agriculture and Prices in England show that in the years just prior to the Portuguese discovery of the Cape route, a pound of pepper brought two shillings, being four days' pay for a carpenter! Yet the people preferred it above all other
