3.13 A Summary
63
the Nusantao maritime culture that Solheim describes appears to have survived
through 7,000 years to the present day, early Spice Island maritime history has a
scope and range that sets it apart from Nusantao. We argue that it was the economic
spur of spice trading that led Spice Island mariners from regional to international
transoceanic trading and enabled them to become traders and colonizers in two
oceans.
The persistent economic motivation of spice trading gives a coherence to Spice
Island maritime history. It explains the Spice Islanders’ transition from regional
trading to long-distance coastal trading in the northern Indian Ocean and conceivably to early transoceanic trading across the width of the WPWP to Japan. More
especially it explains their eventual development of transoceanic exploration and of
trading that ranged as far as east Africa to the west and to America to the east. We
suggest in succeeding chapters that the very scale and frequency of the transoceanic
voyaging involved may imply that transoceanic voyaging was economically driven
and that trading expansion was a persistent force in Spice Island maritime
history.
In contrast, throughout its history, the Nusantao trading domain appears to have
been regional, conducted along the western edges of the WPWP, supported by its
high SSTs. The persistence to this day of the Nusantao trading culture, its connection to the WPWP and its use even today of double-outriggers to pursue maritime
trade suggests the feasibility of the early maritime history we have sketched for the
Spice Island ancestors of the Polynesians. But the contrast between Nusantao history
and Spice Island maritime history emphasizes defining differences between them.
Where the Nusantao trading network has remained regional, the economic spur of
horticultural trading, arising from the possession of the valuable spices growing in
the Spice Islands, and especially of the unique commodity of the clove, transformed
Spice Island maritime history. It turned regional traders into international traders
and regional voyagers into transoceanic voyagers who became explorers, traders and
colonizers in two oceans. We have sketched only the beginning of that evolution in
this chapter.
3.13 A Summary
In summary, Spice Island maritime history, as we envisage it, can be thought of as
having three stages:
(i) local and regional trading in the Ice Age seasonally supported by the high SSTs
of the WPWP;
(ii) regional obsidian trading in the mid-Holocene within the West Pacific Warm
Pool (from Lou Island and Talisea to Sabah in Borneo), coastal spice trading in the northern Indian Ocean and, conceivably, transoceanic spice trading
following the southern part of the Kuro Shio Current through Micronesia to
Japan;
63
the Nusantao maritime culture that Solheim describes appears to have survived
through 7,000 years to the present day, early Spice Island maritime history has a
scope and range that sets it apart from Nusantao. We argue that it was the economic
spur of spice trading that led Spice Island mariners from regional to international
transoceanic trading and enabled them to become traders and colonizers in two
oceans.
The persistent economic motivation of spice trading gives a coherence to Spice
Island maritime history. It explains the Spice Islanders’ transition from regional
trading to long-distance coastal trading in the northern Indian Ocean and conceivably to early transoceanic trading across the width of the WPWP to Japan. More
especially it explains their eventual development of transoceanic exploration and of
trading that ranged as far as east Africa to the west and to America to the east. We
suggest in succeeding chapters that the very scale and frequency of the transoceanic
voyaging involved may imply that transoceanic voyaging was economically driven
and that trading expansion was a persistent force in Spice Island maritime
history.
In contrast, throughout its history, the Nusantao trading domain appears to have
been regional, conducted along the western edges of the WPWP, supported by its
high SSTs. The persistence to this day of the Nusantao trading culture, its connection to the WPWP and its use even today of double-outriggers to pursue maritime
trade suggests the feasibility of the early maritime history we have sketched for the
Spice Island ancestors of the Polynesians. But the contrast between Nusantao history
and Spice Island maritime history emphasizes defining differences between them.
Where the Nusantao trading network has remained regional, the economic spur of
horticultural trading, arising from the possession of the valuable spices growing in
the Spice Islands, and especially of the unique commodity of the clove, transformed
Spice Island maritime history. It turned regional traders into international traders
and regional voyagers into transoceanic voyagers who became explorers, traders and
colonizers in two oceans. We have sketched only the beginning of that evolution in
this chapter.
3.13 A Summary
In summary, Spice Island maritime history, as we envisage it, can be thought of as
having three stages:
(i) local and regional trading in the Ice Age seasonally supported by the high SSTs
of the WPWP;
(ii) regional obsidian trading in the mid-Holocene within the West Pacific Warm
Pool (from Lou Island and Talisea to Sabah in Borneo), coastal spice trading in the northern Indian Ocean and, conceivably, transoceanic spice trading
following the southern part of the Kuro Shio Current through Micronesia to
Japan;