Few spices have a history as dramatic as cinnamon's. It was a gift fit for monarchs, a subject of fantastical legends — and, eventually, a prize fought over by European powers in Sri Lanka.
This history draws on Wikipedia's articles on cinnamon, Portuguese Ceylon, Dutch Ceylon and the Salagama community.
- Ancient Egypt: imported as early as 2000 BC
- First mention of Sri Lanka as source: about 1270
- Portuguese Ceylon: 1597–1658
- Dutch control: trading post 1638; Portuguese expelled 1658
- British took Ceylon: 1796
Cinnamon in the ancient world
- Cinnamon was imported to Egypt as early as 2000 BC, and was used in embalming.
- It was so highly prized that it was regarded as a gift fit for monarchs.
- Pliny the Elder recorded that a Roman pound of cinnamon could cost up to 1,500 denarii — the wage of fifty months' labour.
- The Emperor Nero is said to have burned a year's worth of Rome's supply at his wife's funeral in AD 65.
Myths and secrets
For centuries, traders kept cinnamon's source a secret. Herodotus and other Greek writers claimed it came from Arabia, guarded by winged serpents, or that giant "cinnamon birds" built nests of cinnamon sticks. Pliny the Elder dismissed the bird story as a traders' fiction designed to raise prices. Wikipedia notes the story was still current in Byzantium as late as 1310.
Sri Lanka revealed
According to Wikipedia, the first mention that cinnamon grew specifically in Sri Lanka was by Zakariya al-Qazwini around 1270, followed by John of Montecorvino in about 1292. Venetian traders long held a monopoly on cinnamon in Europe, distributing it from Alexandria — and disruption of that trade was one factor that led Europeans to seek other routes to Asia.
The Portuguese
The Portuguese first arrived in Sri Lanka in 1505, and Wikipedia notes they sought to control the production of valuable cinnamon, and later the island itself. Portuguese Ceylon existed from 1597 to 1658. The Salagama community, traditionally associated with cinnamon peeling, were required to provide cinnamon as a tax under Portuguese rule.
The Dutch
In 1638 Dutch traders established a trading post in Sri Lanka, took control of the cinnamon manufactories by 1640, and expelled the remaining Portuguese by 1658. A Dutch captain reported that "when one is downwind of the island, one can still smell cinnamon eight leagues out to sea". The Dutch East India Company overhauled harvesting methods and eventually began cultivating its own trees.
The British and beyond
The British seized control of Ceylon from the Dutch in 1796. Wikipedia's Sri Lanka article notes that in the 19th and 20th centuries the island became a plantation economy famous for cinnamon, rubber and Ceylon tea. Today, according to Wikipedia, Sri Lanka still produces 80–90% of the world's supply of true cinnamon, Cinnamomum verum.
Once a closely guarded secret, Ceylon cinnamon is still produced mainly in Sri Lanka.
