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The spice of life
生活中的香料
Spice. By Roger Crowley.
《香料》，罗杰·克劳利著。
They looked humble enough.
它们其貌不扬。
One observer compared clove plants to laurel shrubs, while nutmeg, he noticed, grew on something resembling the pear tree.
一位观察者将丁香植物比作月桂灌木，他还注意到肉豆蔻生长在类似梨树的树上。
Despite their common appearance, in the 16th century these spices were special -- and not just because, by a fluke of evolution, they grew only on a handful of islands in the Malay Archipelago, which came to be known as the Spice Islands.
尽管它们看起来很普通，但在16世纪，这些香料是很特别的，这不仅仅是因为由于进化中的偶然，它们只生长在马来群岛的少数几个岛屿上，马来群岛后来被称为香料群岛。
As Roger Crowley, a British maritime historian, explains in an engaging new look at seasoning's long ago seasons, nutmeg and cloves would have effects far beyond the kitchen, kindling revolutions from map-making to spycraft.
正如英国海事历史学家罗杰·克劳利在一本引人入胜的关于调味料历史的新书中所解释的那样，肉豆蔻和丁香的影响远远超出了厨房，引发了从地图绘制到间谍技术的革命。
For centuries many were in doubt about the spices' origins.
几个世纪以来，许多人一直对香料的起源持怀疑态度。
Marco Polo, the famed Venetian explorer, thought cloves came from China and nutmeg from Java.
著名的威尼斯探险家马可·波罗认为丁香来自中国，肉豆蔻来自爪哇。
Mr Crowley begins his story in 1511, when the Portuguese began muscling into the South-East Asian spice trade.
克劳利的讲述始于1511年，当时葡萄牙人开始强行进入东南亚的香料贸易。
Eager for profit, their Spanish and English competitors soon joined them.
他们的西班牙和英国竞争者也渴望分一杯羹，于是很快就加入了葡萄牙人的行列。
In 1553 a trio of ships left London on a journey to reach the Spice Islands via Russia and the Arctic.
1553年，三艘船离开伦敦，途经俄罗斯和北极到达香料群岛。
Their voyage ended in disaster, but their fervour is not hard to understand.
他们的航行以灾难告终，但他们的热情并不难理解。
Light and long-lasting, aromatics could fetch markups of 1,000% by the time they reached European markets.
香料重量轻、保质期长，在进入欧洲市场时可以加价1000%卖出。
That made them more precious than their weight in gold, and the ports that unloaded them soon shimmered, too.
这使得香料比同等重量的黄金更珍贵，而给香料卸货的港口很快也闪耀着金光。
“You are no city,” wrote Fernando de Herrera, Seville's poet laureate, “you are a universe.”
“你非城市，”塞维利亚桂冠诗人费尔南多·德·埃雷拉写道，“而是宇宙。”
Just as the ancient Egyptians carved reliefs of spice fleets on their tombs, and the Romans valued them as portals to the gods, these explorers fell for spices’ allure.
就像古埃及人在坟墓上雕刻香料船队的浮雕，罗马人把香料视为与神明连接的入口一样，这些探险家也没能抵住香料的诱惑。
“The scent of the clove is said to be the most fragrant in the world,” claimed Garcia de Orta, a Portuguese botanist, adding that it smelled as sweet as "forests of flowers".
“丁香的气味据说是世界上最芳香的味道。”葡萄牙植物学家加西亚·德·奥尔塔称，并补充说，丁香闻起来就像“森林花海”一样甜美。
Others marvelled at how spices interacted with the wider ecosystem.
其他人则对香料如何与更广泛的生态系统相互作用感到惊讶。
Encountering the bright green nutmeg trees, Portuguese sailors delighted in the“multitude of parrots and various other birds” that swooped and spread their seeds.
葡萄牙水手们遇到鲜绿色的肉豆蔻树时，高兴地看到“成群的鹦鹉和其他各种各样的鸟”飞来飞去，撒下肉豆蔻的种子。
With cloves came conflict.
而丁香带来了冲突。
In the war for spices, Portuguese and Spanish explorers killed locals, and each other, with gusto.
在争夺香料的战争中，葡萄牙人和西班牙人乐此不疲地杀害当地人并互相残杀。
Soon enough naval expeditions and the spices and other goods that inspired them would draw a “maritime belt” around the planet, Mr Crowley explains.
克劳利解释说，很快，海洋探险，以及激发人们进行探险的香料和其他商品将围绕地球画出一条“海洋带”。
But competition for spices also fired up human ingenuity.
但对香料的竞争也激发了人类的创造力。
Wherever they went, sailors kept scrupulous logs, detailing narrows and shoals for future adventurers.
无论走到哪里，水手们都会一丝不苟地记录下日志，为未来的冒险者详细描述狭窄的水域和浅滩。
As more information became available in Europe -- Portuguese captains were, among other things, expected to record latitudes -- cartography became more common.
随着欧洲有了更多的信息--葡萄牙船长被要求记录纬度等其他事情--地图绘制变得更加普遍。
In 1548 an Italian mapmaker produced the first pocket atlas.
1548年，一位意大利地图师制作了第一本袖珍地图集。
Spain and Portugal each held a master map of the world, constantly updated and jealously guarded from rivals.
西班牙和葡萄牙都一直持有一张世界总地图，总地图不断更新，严防对手发现。
That battle for intelligence helped to hone nations' spycraft.
这场情报争夺战帮助磨练了各国的间谍技术。
Ca' Masser, a Venetian agent posing as a merchant, learned a lot by loitering on the waterfront in Lisbon.
加马赛是一名伪装成商人的威尼斯特工，他通过在里斯本的海滨地区闲逛就了解到了很多信息。
“I have seen the sailing charts of the route to India,” he reported back in code.
“我看过前往印度的航海图，”他用密码报告说。
Mr Crowley describes the 16th century as a “golden age” of cryptography.
克劳利将16世纪描述为密码学的“黄金时代”。
Ultimately the Portuguese monopoly on spices was upended by a Dutch spy, Jan Huygen van Linschoten, who worked as secretary for the bishop of Goa in the 1580s and copied his charts, maps and navigational secrets.
最终，荷兰间谍扬·哈伊根·范·林斯霍滕颠覆了葡萄牙对香料的垄断，他在1580年代担任印度果阿主教的秘书，复制了他的航海图、地图和导航秘密。
They formed the basis of a book, "Itinerario", which helped “launch the Dutch assault on the spice trade” and “dismantle the Portuguese empire” in the Spice Islands.
这些信息构成了《路线》一书的基础，这本书帮助“荷兰发起了对香料贸易的攻击”，并“瓦解了葡萄牙在香料群岛上的帝国”。
Not bad for a secretary.
这位秘书还真算厉害。
