When the Netherlands broke from Spain in 1580, the King of Spain denied Dutch merchants access to Portuguese imports from India in the hope of breaking their economy. But the Dutch found their own way to India, and after England broke Spain’s naval supremacy by crushing her Armada in 1588, Holland rose to be Europe’s prime importer of Eastern goods.

The Dutch now bullied the Portuguese as the Portuguese had bullied them, and rose to became Europe’s exclusive brokers of Eastern goods. Spices now became so costly, however, that enraged English merchants set sail for India to negotiate cheaper deals; and so it was that, thanks to the price of pepper, they laid the foundations of a mighty empire.

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