第1段

Cinnamon is a sweet, fragrant spice produced from the inner bark of trees of the genus Cinnamomum, which is native to the Indian sub-continent. It was known in biblical times, and is mentioned in several books of the Bible, both as an ingredient that was mixed with oils for anointing people’s bodies, and also as a token indicating friendship among lovers and friends. In ancient Rome, mourners attending funerals burnt cinnamon to create a pleasant scent. Most often, however, the spice found its primary use as an additive to food and drink. In the Middle Ages, Europeans who could afford the spice used it to flavour food, particularly meat, and to impress those around them with their ability to purchase an expensive condiment from the ‘exotic’ East. At a banquet, a host would offer guests a plate with various spices piled upon it as a sign of the wealth at his or her disposal. Cinnamon was also reported to have health benefits, and was thought to cure various ailments, such as indigestion.

第1段

肉桂是一种甜香的香料，由来自肉桂树属植物的内皮制成，原产于印度次大陆。它在圣经时代就有人知晓，并在圣经的几本书中提到，既作为与油混合用于涂抹人体的成分，也作为表示爱人和朋友之间友好的象征物。在古罗马时代，参加葬礼的哀悼者会燃烧肉桂来制造令人愉悦的香气。然而，这种香料最常见的用途是作为食物和饮料的添加剂。在中世纪，能够负担得起这种香料的欧洲人将其用于给食物增香，特别是肉类，并展示他们通过购买来自“异国情调”的东方的昂贵调味品而展现出的财富。在宴会上，主人会向客人提供一个盘子，上面堆满了各种香料，以显示他或她拥有的财富。据报道，肉桂还有益健康，被认为可以治愈各种疾病，比如消化不良。

第2段Toward the end of the Middle Ages, the European middle classes began to desire the lifestyle of the elite, including their consumption of spices. This led to a growth in demand for cinnamon and other spices. At that time, cinnamon was transported by Arab merchants, who closely guarded the secret of the source of the spice from potential rivals. They took it from India, where it was grown, on camels via an overland route to the Mediterranean. Their journey ended when they reached Alexandria. European traders sailed there to purchase their supply of cinnamon, then brought it back to Venice. The spice then travelled from that great trading city to markets all around Europe. Because the overland trade route allowed for only small quantities of the spice to reach Europe, and because Venice had a virtual monopoly of the trade, the Venetians could set the price of cinnamon exorbitantly high. These prices, coupled with the increasing demand, spurred the search for new routes to Asia by Europeans eager to take part in the spice trade.

第2段

中世纪末期，欧洲的中产阶级开始渴望享受精英阶层的生活方式，包括他们对香料的消费。这导致对肉桂和其他香料的需求增长。当时，肉桂是由阿拉伯商人运输的，他们紧密保守着这种香料的来源秘密，以防止潜在的竞争对手得知。他们通过陆路从种植地印度，乘坐骆驼把它运到地中海的亚历山大港。欧洲商人前往那里购买他们的肉桂供应，然后将其带回威尼斯。这种香料随后从这个大型贸易城市传到了欧洲各地的市场。由于陆路贸易只能运送少量的香料到达欧洲，并且由于威尼斯对贸易垄断，威尼斯人可以将肉桂的价格定得非常高。这些价格加上不断增长的需求，促使欧洲人渴望寻找到亚洲的新贸易路线，参与香料贸易。

第3段

Seeking the high profits promised by the cinnamon market, Portuguese traders arrived on the island of Ceylon in the Indian Ocean toward the end of the 15th century. Before Europeans arrived on the island, the state had organized the cultivation of cinnamon. People belonging to the ethnic group called the Salagama would peel the bark off young shoots of the cinnamon plant in the rainy season, when the wet bark was more pliable. During the peeling process, they curled the bark into the ‘stick’ shape still associated with the spice today. The Salagama then gave the finished product to the king as a form of tribute. When the Portuguese arrived, they needed to increase production significantly, and so enslaved many other members of the Ceylonese native population, forcing them to work in cinnamon harvesting. In 1518, the Portuguese built a fort on Ceylon, which enabled them to protect the island, so helping them to develop a monopoly in the cinnamon trade and generate very high profits. In the late 16th century, for example, they enjoyed a tenfold profit when shipping cinnamon over a journey of eight days from Ceylon to India.

第3段

为了追逐肉桂市场所带来的高利润，葡萄牙的贸易商在15世纪末抵达印度洋上的锡兰岛。在欧洲人到来之前，该地区已经组织了肉桂的种植。属于萨拉加马族群的人会在雨季时剥去肉桂树幼苗的树皮，当湿润的树皮更加柔软时。在剥皮的过程中，他们将树皮卷成今天与香料相关联的“棍棒”形状。然后，萨拉加马族会将成品作为贡品献给国王。葡萄牙人到达后，他们需要大幅增加产量，因此奴役了斯里兰卡土葡萄牙人在锡兰岛强迫其他斯里兰卡土著人参与肉桂的采摘工作，以满足增加的需求。1518年，葡萄牙人在锡兰岛建立了一座要塞，使他们能够保护这个岛屿，从而帮助他们在肉桂贸易中建立垄断地位并获得巨额利润。例如，在16世纪末，他们通过将肉桂从锡兰岛运送到印度的8天旅程上获得了十倍的利润。

第4段

When the Dutch arrived off the coast of southern Asia at the very beginning of the 17th century, they set their sights on displacing the Portuguese as kings of cinnamon. The Dutch allied themselves with Kandy, an inland kingdom on Ceylon. In return for payments of elephants and cinnamon, they protected the native king from the Portuguese. By 1640, the Dutch broke the 150-year Portuguese monopoly when they overran and occupied their factories. By 1658, they had permanently expelled the Portuguese from the island, thereby gaining control of the lucrative cinnamon trade.

第4段

当荷兰人在17世纪初抵达南亚海岸时，他们将目光投向了取代葡萄牙成为肉桂之王。荷兰人与锡兰内陆的一个王国卡迪结盟。作为对支付的回报，他们保护了本地国王免受葡萄牙人的侵害，并交换大象和肉桂。到了1640年，荷兰人攻克并占领了葡萄牙的工厂，打破了葡萄牙人150年的垄断地位。到1658年，他们永久性地将葡萄牙人驱逐出岛屿，取得了肉桂贸易的利润丰厚的控制权。

第5段

In order to protect their hold on the market, the Dutch, like the Portuguese before them, treated the native inhabitants harshly. Because of the need to boost production and satisfy Europe’s ever-increasing appetite for cinnamon, the Dutch began to alter the harvesting practices of the Ceylonese. Over time, the supply of cinnamon trees on the island became nearly exhausted, due to systematic stripping of the bark. Eventually, the Dutch began cultivating their own cinnamon trees to supplement the diminishing number of wild trees available for use.

第5段

为了保持市场份额，荷兰人像之前的葡萄牙人一样，对当地居民采取了严厉的对待。由于需要提高产量，满足欧洲对肉桂的持续增长的需求，荷兰人开始改变斯里兰卡人的采收方法。随着时间的推移，岛上的肉桂树供应几乎耗尽，因为树皮被系统地剥离。最终，荷兰人开始种植自己的肉桂树，以补充可供使用的野生树木数量的减少。

第6段

Then, in 1796, the English arrived on Ceylon, thereby displacing the Dutch from their control of the cinnamon monopoly. By the middle of the 19th century, production of cinnamon reached 1,000 tons a year, after a lower grade quality of the spice became acceptable to European tastes. By that time, cinnamon was being grown in other parts of the Indian Ocean region and in the West Indies, Brazil, and Guyana. Not only was a monopoly of cinnamon becoming impossible, but the spice trade overall was diminishing in economic potential, and was eventually superseded by the rise of trade in coffee, tea, chocolate, and sugar.

第6段

然后，在1796年，英国人抵达锡兰，取代荷兰成为肉桂贸易的控制者。到19世纪中叶，肉桂的产量达到每年1000吨，这是因为一种质量较低的肉桂逐渐被欧洲人接受。在那个时候，肉桂开始在印度洋地区的其他地方以及西印度群岛、巴西和圭亚那进行种植。肉桂垄断局已经不再可能，同时整个香料贸易的经济潜力也在减少，最终被咖啡、茶、巧克力和糖等商品贸易所取代。