Beautiful Barley

berkeleywellness.com

Barley, a member of the grass family, and a type of cereal grain, has had a monumental impact on the course of human history.  Native to western Asia and northern Africa, barley thrived in the Fertile Crescent at the time of the Neolithic Revolution, and was one of the first crops to be domesticated.  Even today, barley remains one of the most grown crops in the world.  Why, you ask, do we love barley so? One word: Beer.

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In a few steps and with some complicated chemistry, barley can be turned into delicious, delicious beer.  Evidence of beer brewing can be found as far back as 9,500 BCE, making it one of the oldest alcoholic beverages known to man.  And the early peoples love of this drink helped to shape the world as we know it.  Some argue that the written language was created to keep track of beer- some of the earliest examples of cuneiform are ledgers and receipts for beer.  The great pyramids of Giza were not built by slaves, but by paid workers, who were paid, of course, in beer.  Beer also sustained huge populations in areas where water was not safe to drink.

Our love of beer has not dwindled in recent years.  Beer is the most consumed alcoholic beverage on the planet, and the third most consumed beverage of all, beating out coffee, soda, milk, and juices. Today, the beer industry worldwide is worth over $400 billion.

The Spice Trade

Via peerlesscoffee.com

We don't give much thought to spices today- they're cheap and readily available and there's little mystery about they.  On some level we know that spices were once very expensive and very important, but the full extent of their influence is truly shocking.

For most of ancient history and up through the late Middle Ages, the spice trade was dominated by those who lived closest to the source- the Arabs.  Traders from the middle east had a monopoly on these precious goods, keeping the location of the only islands where spices like nutmeg and cloves grew a closely guarded secret.  While the Arab world was rich in spices, the farther from the source you got, the rarer and more expensive spices became.  Spices were exorbitantly pricey in Europe, the far end of the supply chain, so that only the richest of the rich could afford them and they became the status symbol.  Eventually, however, the Europeans  tired of relying on the Arabs and decided they would get their spices themselves, thank you very much.  They would just need to find a sea route to the East Indies...

Yes, the famous age of exploration was kicked off because people wanted their pepper cheaper, dammit! Spain and Portugal were first out the gate.  Portugal headed east, around Africa, eventually arriving in the East Indies and finding the spices they were looking for.  Spain headed west and bumped into a small island known as the Americas.  While Spain didn't find the spices she was looking for, the Americas were rich in other spices such as vanilla and chilli peppers, and of course everyones favorite spice, gold.

Soon the Dutch and the British joined the party, exploration continued, colonies were founded, and wars were fought, all in the name of spices.

American History & Plants

Tobacco & The 1st Successful Colony in America

Jamestown, Virginia
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Tobacco Field
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When the English sent ships of settlers to the new world, they had three things in mind: gold, finding a water passage to the East, and creating a lasting settlement, in that order.  The settlers were prepared and provisioned for their first two goals, but had put little thought into the third.  Upon arrival in the New World, some colonists went right to work digging for gold, some set off exploring, some declared themselves too high born for manual labor, and too few others farmed and built.  By the time winter rolled around, the colony had no gold to send home to England, no passage to the east (obviously), and far too little food.  Of the original 241 settlers, only 60 survived.  Jamestown seemed doomed to go the way of Roanoke.
In May, 1610, John Rolfe arrived in Jamestown with the colony's savior: tobacco.  The small seed Rolfe brought with him flourished in the Virginia climate, and soon every settler in Jamestown had his own small farm.  With this new source of income the colony began to thrive, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Cotton & The Boom in the South

A Cotton Field
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In the late 1700s England saw the advent of the Industrial Revolution.  New technology and high demand for cotton products spurred the construction of large factories which could produce textiles at an extraordinary rate.  To keep up with the newer, faster means of production, England needed a lot of raw cotton, and the young America was happy to help.  The climate in the southern United States is ideal for cultivating cotton, and plantations quickly popped up all over the fertile new land.  Not only did the cotton boom invigorate the American economy, but it helped to set economic and cultural trends that remain in effect today.

The Catch

Slaves on a Cotton Plantation
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Both tobacco and cotton were and continue to be extremely important crops for America and her economy.  They played instrumental roles in her founding and flourishing, and we would certainly not be where we are today without them- so what's the catch?  To cultivate both crops in the numbers that they were, slaves were required.  Lots of slaves.  The success of America is built not just on the crops which sustained her, but also on the hundreds of thousands of men and women who were made to work the fields.