Kelsey MoonHistory 140

Dr. A7 October 2009

Asia-centered world economy taking shape since the rise of Islam in the seventh century

Most rulers allowed traders of all faiths to move freely from port to port

Density of exchange also favored the worldwide diffusion of knowledge and products

goods considered drugs, that is,

products ingested, smoked, sniffed,

or drunk to produce an altered state

of being, have been central to exchange

and consumption

Both European and Asian consumers became addicted to these American, Asian, and African products

Europeans had theories that explained Indians' failure in commerce: Indians were racially inferior, lazy, and, most of all, uninterested in profit

urge to barter and truck was strong enough to push goods over two thousand miles

potatoe "discovered" by Spanish soldiers in the Peruvian Andes in the 1550s

Considered a second-class

food even in its homeland

Potatoes were important

in the Andes for simple reasons:

1. grow at extremely high altitudes

2. withstanding frosts

3. required little labor

Arabs were the first great sugar cultivators

Egyptian sugar was regarded as the world's finest

Other Europeans became

familiar with this new

plant as they battled their

way to Jerusalem during

the Crusades

natives smoked, cooked

licked, ate, and snorted

Tobacco

They offered tobacco to

their gods, plied their women

with it, and pulverized it into

enema formulas

Europeans were slow to adopt the coffee habit for several reasons

as a Muslim drink it was viewed as heretical

Turkish fashion of a very thick, hot, black unsweetened drink did not please European palates

the rather rare caffeine

spice or drug was quite

expensive

Cacao was considered to be a stimulant, intoxicant, hallucinogen, and aphrodisiac

The drink also served as a cure for anxiety, fever, and coughs

chocolate was commonly

drunk with chile peppers,

flowers that resembled black

pepper, the seeds of the

pizle–which gave a bitter

almond taste