 Welcome to the history of cinnamon, or really I should say the very bloody and shrouded history of cinnamon. Cinnamon was very coveted in a rare commodity for many, many years, and it was so prized people were willing to kill for it. So, how did all of this come to pass? Keep on watching and you'll find out all about it today, on eccentric nature! And now, the history of cinnamon. But what is the one and only true cinnamon? There can be only one. You see, cinnamon actually comes from two primary areas. And both types come from the bark of trees in the Laurel family. But here's where the two main types of cinnamon diverge. Casio cinnamon comes from China. It's described in a 5,000-year-old Chinese text written by Shenang, who is considered to be the father of Chinese herbal medicine. He's also the cool dude who invented tea. We love you, Shenang! Now, Casio cinnamon is actually the cinnamon that you'll find most often in food and other products these days. But the one considered to be the true cinnamon is salam. I mean, first off, its scientific name is cinnamomum verum, which literally translates to mean true cinnamon. Ceylon cinnamon comes from the country of Ceylon, which is now known as Sri Lanka. And it's considered to be true cinnamon because it is the more refined and higher quality of the two cinnamons. And it is also the one that was the most highly prized throughout the ages. While some still dispute this, most believe this is the cinnamon that the Egyptians started using around 2000 BC. The Egyptians would use it in perfume and, as they love to do, for embalming people. Just warms the cockles of your heart, doesn't it? And not surprisingly, it didn't take long for cinnamon to become the talk of the town. Oh, the cool cats and kittens wanted some cinnamon. But it was so expensive, only the elite could afford it. The Hebrews used cinnamon for a special incense called the katoret, which is used in the most prestigious services in the Jewish tabernacle. And cinnamon was also very practical, as it was highly prized for its ability to preserve meat. In fact, cinnamon was so desirable that nations would use it as an exceptional gift when meeting monarchs. And it wasn't long before owning cinnamon became a status symbol. Man, you just aren't anybody unless you've got some cinnamon. Now here's where things get fun. You see, the Arabic cinnamon traders didn't want anybody to get a piece of their action. Transporting cinnamon across cumbersome land routes was very difficult. And in the first century AD, Pliny the Elder mentions how 350 grams of cinnamon is worth the same as 5 kilograms of silver. So, in order to protect their valuable product, the traders wove various fantastical stories to keep the mystique and value of cinnamon at its peak. Herodotus wrote about one story where cinnamon was believed to be harvested by enormous birds. Later coined cinnamon birds who carried it to their nests. Another tale told of how it was only found in deep canyons. Guarded by terrifying snakes. Others said it was fished out of the Nile. Maybe because mermaids love cinnamon too? But people didn't really buy this, did they? Oh, they did. Hook, line, and sinker, maybe. Our favorite kooky historian, Pliny the Elder, guessed in his writings that cinnamon came out of Ethiopia, carried on rafts with no oars or sails, but powered by man alone and his courage. Aw, man, I want to power a boat with my courage. Thanks to all these tales, the traders were able to keep the true location of their cinnamon source a secret. And this fun little charade was actually maintained about a thousand years until the 12th century. Alas, as I mentioned earlier, things are about to get gory. We start with Emperor Nero. Now, no one was in the room where it happened. I wanna be in the room where it happens, the room where it happens. But here's what is roughly believed to have happened. Nero and his wife, Papia Sabina, got into a fiercely heated argument over him spending too much time at the old chariot races. Well, in a fit of rage. Depending on which story you hear, Nero either kicks or out-and-out leaps on his wife's pregnant belly. No others say that it was possibly more tame, and his wife just died because of complications of a miscarriage. Either way, Nero is completely distraught and burns a year's supply of the city's very expensive cinnamon on her funeral pyre to atone for his part in her death. Whew, that's pretty horrific. But just an isolated incident? As things are about to get bloody on a global scale thanks to cinnamon sticks. You see, word finally got out about where true cinnamon was being produced. Thanks to an Arabic scholar, I'm not saying that name, and not long after, John of Montacorvino spilled the beans in a letter he wrote in 1292. And now that people are starting to find out that cinnamon wasn't harvested by giant birds or guarded by terrible snakes, they wanted a piece of the action. Now the Venetians, who had ended up cornering the European cinnamon trade, also really wanted to get a bigger piece of that pie. So they funded a number of expeditions, as did other countries like Spain, including some voyages led by Dorcas Maximus, Christopher Columbus, who promptly got lost and ran into this supposed new land, which wasn't even close to what he thought it was. But hey, Columbus was nothing if not resilient, he set out on another mission to find cinnamon and other wonderful products, and amazingly, he found some and wrote home to Queen Isabella Triumphant, and then quickly found out that the samples were done. And after several voyages of trying to find gold, cinnamon, other spices, really anything of merit, and being the stand-up guy he was, Columbus instead decided to send 500 slaves back to Queen Isabella, which totally freaked her out, and she returned the slaves. And not long after, Columbus was arrested. Yeah, I know. Oh, it's so pathetic. Much more successful was Ferdinand Magellan, who was the first to sail from Europe to the Orient past the southernmost tip of South America, and in the 1500s ended up finding Cinemomum Minna Naintz, a close relative of Ceylon cinnamon, and this cinnamon actually became competitive on the global market. But it was the famous Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, who ended up finding the island of Sri Lanka around 1518. The Portuguese then worked out a fair and equitable deal with the locals to farm and distribute the world's most expensive cinnamon. Man, it sure would be nice if that's how it worked out. But no! Murder and mayhem ensued, and the Portuguese enslaved the entire island kingdom of Coto to take over the cinnamon trade, which they held for over a century. That is until another big bad powerhouse country took over, the ever fearsome country of Holland. Huh? But don't they grow like tulips and stuff? Well, back in the 1600s, the Dutch were a bit tougher and meaner about things, and with the help of some of the locals, they kicked Portugal's butt off the island by 1658. In fact, to make sure they didn't try and take back over, the Dutch kept battling the Portuguese until they had expunged them from the west coast of India. Once in control, the Dutch established what is widely known as the first international corporation, the Dutch East India Company. They were also the first to sell shares and securities to fund their activities, and this meant that the locals now had much better management. Ha ha ha! Oh no. Oh, you know nothing about history, do you? The Dutch were perhaps even more ruthless to the locals demanding ludicrous quotas from their workers. At one point, the locals started a revolt and massacred many of the Dutch overlords. Unfortunately, they weren't successful and the Dutch kept control of cinnamon production for almost 150 years. Enter the English, and if you remember anything about this lot, they weren't terribly nice either. The English were feeling just a little bit left out, because gush by gully, Ollie, they were the world's superpower around this time, and they deserved to have their part of that tasty cinnamon-flavored pie. So they got their bloodthirsty rage on in a series of wars against the Dutch, known as the Anglo-Dutch Wars. Of course, this was over other spices as well, but cinnamon was still one of the crown jewels they were after in this crimson-colored carnage. While all of this was going on, Lord Brown of the British East India Company established a cinnamon estate of his own in the Kananur district of Kerala, India. This would end up becoming Asia's largest cinnamon estate. But did some of the cinnamon mummy want all of it? Give me my cinnamon! And so the British fended off the Dutch in the last Anglo-Dutch war in 1784, but they didn't actually take control of Ceylon until they went and fought the French, who had snuck in there and taken control of it temporarily during the Revolutionary Wars. Eh, gads! So tough to keep up with all this bloodlust, isn't it? It's cinnamon people! Just find a way to grow more of it! Which is what ended up happening. More plantations ended up being established in other regions, and eventually the value of cinnamon ended up coming down to a more equitable level. Unfortunately, this meant that lower quality cinnamon also ended up becoming the norm. But hey, I mean, at least things weren't so bloody now! Oddly, amidst all the carnage, the Dutch still controlled Indonesia until they declared independence in 1945. Today, Indonesia is one of the largest producers of cinnamon in the world. And as I alluded to earlier, Cassius cinnamon is actually what we get most of these days. But the original true cinnamon is still produced mainly out of Sri Lanka. And Ceylon cinnamon is still very rare and is currently the fourth most expensive spice in the world. There's also quite a bit of fraud in the cinnamon industry now, with lots of pretenders trying to steal Ceylon cinnamon's glory. The Sri Lankan government has also established a cinnamon research station to help maintain a high level of quality control, develop new cinnamon peeling tools, and do everything they can to keep Ceylon cinnamon's reputation the best in the world! Have you ever tried true Ceylon cinnamon? Let me know in the comments down below. If you want to learn more amazing herbal histories, then watch the History of Dandelions or the History of Sage next. Please be kind, take care of each other, and if you get the chance, get your hands on some Ceylon and experience the glory of the one true cinnamon!