Spices Once Ruled the World. Now They’re $3.99 at the Supermarket.

By now, you probably know that Per My Last Thought is where I expand on thoughts that stick with me, about topics of interest that aren’t necessarily about business. The kind that linger after I finish a book, leave a conversation, or drift back from one of my usual mental wanderings.

Recently, I read An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage. It explores global history through a deceptively simple lens: food. What we grow, trade, and consume has shaped the modern world more than most of us realize.

The chapter on the global spice trade stood out to me the most. Not because the history was new, but because of how absurd it feels in hindsight. Nutmeg once justified massacres. Cloves were exchanged for land. Cinnamon funded conquest. All to make spoiled food slightly more bearable.

Here are five spices that now sit in the back of your drawer, but once could’ve been worth more than your house:

1- Cinnamon: What You Use on French Toast

Cinnamon is the inner bark of trees native to Sri Lanka. It was used as early as 2000 BCE, prized by Egyptians for embalming and later by Romans and medieval Europeans for religious and elite purposes.