Malacca and the Spice Trade
Portuguese Malacca drawing by Pedro Barreto Resende. In the book Livro das Plantas de Todas as Fortalezas, Cidades" by Antonio Bacaro, Goa 1635 "Whoever is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice" .-The famous line of the 16th-century Portuguese chronicler Tome Pires highlighting the importance of Malacca (part of Malaysia) to the Spice trade. But long before the arrival of European maritime powers Portugal and Spain in Southeast Asia, spices were already making its wa y to Europe. From the fabled Spice Islands in the Moluccas (part of Indonesia), Malay and Chinese traders would navigate the dangerous seas to bring the commodities to different ports of the region. From Malacca, Arab and Indian traders set the prices and take the goods, crossing the waters of the Indian subcontinent and then heading towards important ports of Arabia where caravans would then take the land routes towards the Levant ports. The merchant ships of Venice would