142
8 Transoceanic Trading in Two Oceans
the Spice Islanders’ loss of direct control of spice sources. The capacity for longdistance transoceanic trading from the Spice Island region seems to have lasted
at least to AD 600 in the Indian Ocean [12] (though, long before this, trading
using indigenous mariners may have been under foreign control). In the Pacific
Ocean it possibly lasted till AD 1000. There is traditional evidence of long-distance
oceanic migration from the Spice Island region to Hawaii till AD 460 and to New
Zealand till the time of Rakaihautu in about AD 840, perhaps reflecting a continuing history of foreign dispossession for indigenous spice growers in the Spice Island
region.
If Spice Island rare plant trading to India took place over a period of 2,600 years
(minus the 600-year global cold period) this might suggest that coastal trading to
India from the Spice Islands continued up till the end of the American voyaging
period, probably till AD 1000. The picture this suggests is of Spice Islanders specializing in a luxury spice and rare plant trade. Egypt, the Middle East and Europe
were the major market for their spices and for American hallucinogenic drugs, India
their major market for American medicinal and food plants.
Given traditional evidence that explorers travelled in a pair of canoes and
migrants in a fleet of six or seven, it seems likely that traders would have travelled in
a group of two or three canoes to allow for ocean rescue and for protection at their
destinations. Pliny the Elder records that in his time the Cinnamon Route had a turnaround time of five years [13]. Perhaps, as Beale’s replica voyage has demonstrated,
since double-outriggers with a following monsoonal wind could sail at five knots,
making the trip to east Africa a matter of weeks rather than years, Pliny’s sources
were inaccurate or claimed, rather, that the Cinnamon Route was only sailed every
five years.
If the Kuro Shio Route was sailed to America every 20 years and there were 2,000
years of climatically feasible voyaging times, as estimated from evidence for the
timings of Indian plant introductions, we are looking at a 100 voyages to America,
not the 1–3 voyages implicit in the American archaeological evidence for the diffusion of Polynesian fishhooks and sewn plank technology to southern California. The
contrast between the different implied voyaging frequencies for the two sets of evidence makes clear that, where the question of voyaging frequency is concerned, the
Indian plant evidence introduces us to another evidence domain. Of the fully authenticated plant introductions 7 reached India before 1000 BC, 33 between 400 BC and
AD 1000. Plants are unlikely to have been introduced only once. We are probably
looking at multiple introductions of a range of varieties for each plant. Indeed, the
multiple Sanskrit names in India for many of the introduced plants suggests the
introduction of different varieties of the same plant over time or their introduction
to different regions or early introduction and dispersal with variations in names over
time marking their spread. Probably many batches of each variety were traded in
successive voyages while market interest in that variety was at its height. In comparison, over about 200 years, 70 varieties of kumara were either introduced to New
Zealand or developed in New Zealand by medieval Polynesian migrants. Trialling
different varieties of the same American plant for their appropriateness to a range
of growing conditions in India would have taken time and persistence and would
8 Transoceanic Trading in Two Oceans
the Spice Islanders’ loss of direct control of spice sources. The capacity for longdistance transoceanic trading from the Spice Island region seems to have lasted
at least to AD 600 in the Indian Ocean [12] (though, long before this, trading
using indigenous mariners may have been under foreign control). In the Pacific
Ocean it possibly lasted till AD 1000. There is traditional evidence of long-distance
oceanic migration from the Spice Island region to Hawaii till AD 460 and to New
Zealand till the time of Rakaihautu in about AD 840, perhaps reflecting a continuing history of foreign dispossession for indigenous spice growers in the Spice Island
region.
If Spice Island rare plant trading to India took place over a period of 2,600 years
(minus the 600-year global cold period) this might suggest that coastal trading to
India from the Spice Islands continued up till the end of the American voyaging
period, probably till AD 1000. The picture this suggests is of Spice Islanders specializing in a luxury spice and rare plant trade. Egypt, the Middle East and Europe
were the major market for their spices and for American hallucinogenic drugs, India
their major market for American medicinal and food plants.
Given traditional evidence that explorers travelled in a pair of canoes and
migrants in a fleet of six or seven, it seems likely that traders would have travelled in
a group of two or three canoes to allow for ocean rescue and for protection at their
destinations. Pliny the Elder records that in his time the Cinnamon Route had a turnaround time of five years [13]. Perhaps, as Beale’s replica voyage has demonstrated,
since double-outriggers with a following monsoonal wind could sail at five knots,
making the trip to east Africa a matter of weeks rather than years, Pliny’s sources
were inaccurate or claimed, rather, that the Cinnamon Route was only sailed every
five years.
If the Kuro Shio Route was sailed to America every 20 years and there were 2,000
years of climatically feasible voyaging times, as estimated from evidence for the
timings of Indian plant introductions, we are looking at a 100 voyages to America,
not the 1–3 voyages implicit in the American archaeological evidence for the diffusion of Polynesian fishhooks and sewn plank technology to southern California. The
contrast between the different implied voyaging frequencies for the two sets of evidence makes clear that, where the question of voyaging frequency is concerned, the
Indian plant evidence introduces us to another evidence domain. Of the fully authenticated plant introductions 7 reached India before 1000 BC, 33 between 400 BC and
AD 1000. Plants are unlikely to have been introduced only once. We are probably
looking at multiple introductions of a range of varieties for each plant. Indeed, the
multiple Sanskrit names in India for many of the introduced plants suggests the
introduction of different varieties of the same plant over time or their introduction
to different regions or early introduction and dispersal with variations in names over
time marking their spread. Probably many batches of each variety were traded in
successive voyages while market interest in that variety was at its height. In comparison, over about 200 years, 70 varieties of kumara were either introduced to New
Zealand or developed in New Zealand by medieval Polynesian migrants. Trialling
different varieties of the same American plant for their appropriateness to a range
of growing conditions in India would have taken time and persistence and would