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This chapter looks at the pepper-producing lands in ancient India. Broadly speaking, from Antiquity up to the Early Modern Age, South India was the only source of black pepper exported to the west. However, within South India, the precise geographical loci of pepper appear to have been subject to local intraregional shifts over time. Specifically, a first shift occurred during the transition to Late Antiquity, when the pepper trade centres moved from Muziris up to the Mangalore region. In the transition to the Late Middle Ages and then to Early Modernity, the focus of the pepper trade shifted again, but this time in the opposite direction, from Mangalore down to Calicut, and then from Calicut down to Cochin. Although geographically close, these South Indian sub-regions achieved differing levels of pepper productivity in the Early Modern period. It is not clear whether the shifts were also sensitive to the vagaries of local politics, but whatever the local dynamics, they certainly mirror the shifting balance between the two macro regions that were the primary consumers of South Indian pepper: west Asia and the Mediterranean regions on one side, and the Bay of Bengal and China on the other.

This chapter details pepper production and collection in ancient India. From Antiquity to Early Modernity, South India’s pepper trade was influenced by the geographical and cultural diversity of the communities who made the pepper available for overseas consumption: the gatherers in the upland forests of the Western Ghats, and the lowland peoples who brought it to the emporia. Because of the ecological, cultural, and socio-economic variability within South India, the demands for pepper led to different patterns of production, which in turn developed in different micro-contexts. Indeed, different travellers have left different reports regarding the means by which western merchants acquired black pepper. It is important to recognize that more than one step of the long process that brought pepper and ivory from the foothills of the Western Ghats to Alexandria occurred within India itself, and that the nature of these exchanges ranged from informal to formal. Ultimately, a broader and more inclusive perspective is necessary to capture both the commercial activities reflected in the Muziris loan contract and the transactions between the Western Ghats forest communities and the Muziris-based dealers.

This chapter examines three pertinent comparisons arising from the reconstruction of the Hermapollon’s cargo. The first concerns the size of the ships involved in the pepper trade and its relationship to both the region from which the spice was exported and the sea route by which it was transported. The pepper trade can take different forms, and the pattern detailed by the Muziris papyrus proves to be unique in the long history of the South Indian pepper trade. The second comparison concerns the Periplus’ list of the commodities available in the Limyrike emporia and the Hermapollon’s cargo as itemized in the verso of the Muziris papyrus. Finally, the third comparison concerns the size of the elephant tusks. When compared with the average weight of some sixteenth-century East African cargoes, the average weight of the tusks carried by the Hermapollon reveals the overall fine quality of the batch and, ultimately, the distinctiveness of the human–elephant relationship in India compared to East Africa.

This chapter examines the trade model reflected in the Muziris papyrus, contrasting its peculiarities with those of other trade patterns between Egypt and the west coast of India. The history of trade relations between India and Egypt from Antiquity to the Early Modern era may be divided into periods based on the role played by the emporia in the Gulf of Aden, which over time operated either as stopovers for ships sailing all the way from Egypt to India (a direct sea-route system), or as intermediate meeting points for vessels sailing from each end of the sea route (a multi-stage sea-route system). At the time of the Muziris papyrus, while the South India trade still retained the old model, the commercial relationships with the Indus delta and Barygaza may have already evolved towards the multi-stage arrangement, which offered additional options. The westbound trips were able to benefit from the late north-east monsoon, and the eastbound voyages could use the early south-west monsoon as well. In terms of the pepper trade, this meant that while the Roman pepper carriers had to leave India by 13 January, the ships of the medieval pepper trade could stay in India for all of February and part of March.