By turns exotic, valuable and of cardinal importance in the development of world trade, spices are today a mundane accessory in any well-equipped kitchen; in the 15th-18th centuries the spice trade from the Indian Ocean to markets all over the world was a major economic enterprise. Setting the scene with extracts from Garcia da Orta"s "Colloquies on the simples and drugs of India", this collection reviews trade in a wide variety of spices, exploring merchant organization, transport and marketing as well as detailing the quantitative evidence on the fluctuations in spice trade. The evidence and historical debates concerning the 16th-century revival of the Mediterranean and Red Sea spice trade at this time, are fully represented here.