8.2 Chinese Contact with America
135
of American plants to be introduced to India, and tobacco and cocaine to be sold to
Egypt, also of low volume, would be likely trade choices.
Some prehistorians have suggested a luxury trading motivation for Chinese contact, with Mesoamerican and South American hallucinogenic drugs and jade as
highly sought trading items [4]. It seems possible that Spice Islanders also may have
voyaged to America to obtain tobacco and cocaine to trade along with their own
spices to Egypt and Europe: that is, there is a possibility that they may have established what amounts to an intercontinental trade in tobacco and cocaine bridging
two oceans.
That an intercontinental trade in hallucinogenic drugs existed seems clear. Alice
Kehoe [5] summarizes the evidence for this international transoceanic trade:
Tobacco leaves, identified as American tobacco, were chopped up, along with narcissus leaves, and stuffed into the viscera of Pharaoh Ramses the Great, revealed by a
French autopsy of the mummy published in 1986. Nicotine and coca metabolites have
been identified by the German forensic chemist, Svetlana Balabanova in hair, bones, and
skin of Egyptian mummies from the first millennium BC to early centuries A.D., and in
pre-Columbian skeletons from China and Europe.
Of comparable interest to the discovery of cocaine and American tobacco in
Egyptian mummies is the discovery of hashish (Cannabis sativa), an Old World
plant, in Peruvian mummies dating to before AD 200. Residues of tobacco and
cocaine were found in these mummies together with hashish imported from the
Old World [6]. This evidence suggests a two-way trade between the New and Old
Worlds in hallucinogenic drugs, use of these drugs before AD 200 in both Old and
New Worlds and their use in Peru, Egypt and China in the same triple combination
of cocaine, nicotine and cannabis.
Though Chinese traders may also have been involved in this trade, the pattern,
dating, sequence and range of first-wave Spice Island maritime exploits, with maritime trading in two oceans before 1000 BC, supports the likelihood that if American
cocaine and tobacco reached Egypt in both first- and second-wave periods, and especially as early as the second millennium BC, they may have been traded by Spice
Island mariners. This trading would have involved long-distance voyaging in two
oceans – following the Kuro Shio Route to Japan and then east to America and back
to the Spice Islands. From there Spice Island mariners may have followed a coastal
route through the northern Indian Ocean via India to the Red Sea and Egypt or via
the faster transoceanic Cinnamon Route to east Africa and so to Egypt and Europe.
We have argued that for 30,000 years during the last Ice Age Spice Islanders
were in a position to exploit the trading advantage of a pivotal position giving them
access not only to the West Pacific Warm Pool but also to two oceans and two ancient
continents. We have also argued that the pivotal position of the Spice Islands gave
them access to two biological zones, Asian and Pacific. We have suggested that the
Spice Islanders’ early role in animal and plant domestication exploited their access
to these two biological zones and that following the Kuro Shio Current to America
would have given Spice Islanders access to a third biological zone. Accessing hallucinogenic plants in the New World, and in the case of hashish, trading an Old
135
of American plants to be introduced to India, and tobacco and cocaine to be sold to
Egypt, also of low volume, would be likely trade choices.
Some prehistorians have suggested a luxury trading motivation for Chinese contact, with Mesoamerican and South American hallucinogenic drugs and jade as
highly sought trading items [4]. It seems possible that Spice Islanders also may have
voyaged to America to obtain tobacco and cocaine to trade along with their own
spices to Egypt and Europe: that is, there is a possibility that they may have established what amounts to an intercontinental trade in tobacco and cocaine bridging
two oceans.
That an intercontinental trade in hallucinogenic drugs existed seems clear. Alice
Kehoe [5] summarizes the evidence for this international transoceanic trade:
Tobacco leaves, identified as American tobacco, were chopped up, along with narcissus leaves, and stuffed into the viscera of Pharaoh Ramses the Great, revealed by a
French autopsy of the mummy published in 1986. Nicotine and coca metabolites have
been identified by the German forensic chemist, Svetlana Balabanova in hair, bones, and
skin of Egyptian mummies from the first millennium BC to early centuries A.D., and in
pre-Columbian skeletons from China and Europe.
Of comparable interest to the discovery of cocaine and American tobacco in
Egyptian mummies is the discovery of hashish (Cannabis sativa), an Old World
plant, in Peruvian mummies dating to before AD 200. Residues of tobacco and
cocaine were found in these mummies together with hashish imported from the
Old World [6]. This evidence suggests a two-way trade between the New and Old
Worlds in hallucinogenic drugs, use of these drugs before AD 200 in both Old and
New Worlds and their use in Peru, Egypt and China in the same triple combination
of cocaine, nicotine and cannabis.
Though Chinese traders may also have been involved in this trade, the pattern,
dating, sequence and range of first-wave Spice Island maritime exploits, with maritime trading in two oceans before 1000 BC, supports the likelihood that if American
cocaine and tobacco reached Egypt in both first- and second-wave periods, and especially as early as the second millennium BC, they may have been traded by Spice
Island mariners. This trading would have involved long-distance voyaging in two
oceans – following the Kuro Shio Route to Japan and then east to America and back
to the Spice Islands. From there Spice Island mariners may have followed a coastal
route through the northern Indian Ocean via India to the Red Sea and Egypt or via
the faster transoceanic Cinnamon Route to east Africa and so to Egypt and Europe.
We have argued that for 30,000 years during the last Ice Age Spice Islanders
were in a position to exploit the trading advantage of a pivotal position giving them
access not only to the West Pacific Warm Pool but also to two oceans and two ancient
continents. We have also argued that the pivotal position of the Spice Islands gave
them access to two biological zones, Asian and Pacific. We have suggested that the
Spice Islanders’ early role in animal and plant domestication exploited their access
to these two biological zones and that following the Kuro Shio Current to America
would have given Spice Islanders access to a third biological zone. Accessing hallucinogenic plants in the New World, and in the case of hashish, trading an Old