Les cycles du commerce du poivre

ABSTRACT: The article highlights a distinction between two pepper trade cycles in Antiquity. In the first cycle, the pepper import is based on the enormous volumes harvested from inland Kottanariké (now central Kerala) and on the use of very large vessels sailing from the southernmost Red Sea ports of Egypt (Berenice) to the southern Indian emporia and, within Egypt, on caravans crossing the Eastern Desert up to Coptos and on Nile river navigation up to Alexandria. This method was still in practice at the beginning of the 3rd century AD. In Late Antiquity, however, the pattern changes. The pepper source shifts to the less productive region of northern Malabar, with Mangalore in the center, and the direct sea routes between Egypt and India give way to a transport system broken in two lines of maritime communication, one berween Egypt and East Africa (or South Arabia) and another berween East Africa (or South Arabia) and India. Keywords : pepper, trade, large ships, Indian Ocean, South India.