Nicholas Nugent & The New York Map Society at Argosy Book Store: The Spice Ports

All are welcome to attend a book talk and signing event for The Spice Ports: Mapping the Origins of Global Sea Trade, by Nicholas Nugent, with special reference to New York and Salem.

We may think of ‘globalism’ as a recent development, but its origins date back to the fifteenth century and beyond, when seafarers pioneered routes across the oceans with the objectives of exploration, trade, and profit. The voyages became possible only after improvements in ship design, compasses, and mapping enabled navigation across unprecedented distances. The mariners’ embarkation points were the vibrant ports of the West—Venice, Amsterdam, Lisbon—and their destinations the exotic ports of the East – Malacca, Goa, Bombay—where they tracked down the elusive spices, so much in demand by Western palates. This development of maritime communication brought benefits apart from culinary delights: the spread of ideas on art, literature and science. But it was not necessarily beneficial for everyone concerned: colonial ambitions were often disastrous for local populations, who were frequently exploited as slave plantation labor. This wide-ranging account of a fascinating period of global history uses original maps and contemporary artists’ views to tell the story of how each port developed individually. (Nicholas Nugent spent his career as a journalist with the BBC World Service, and his spare time collecting original maps.)