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Narrator:Listen to part of a lecture in a European history class.
獨白:聽下面一段歐洲歷史的課程。
Professor:In order to really study the social history of the Middle Ages, you have to understand the role of spices.
教授:同學們，要理解中世紀的社會發展歷史，你們必須要理解香料的重要作用。
Now, this might sound a little surprising, even a little strange.
現在，我這樣說，聽上去有些令人驚訝，甚至詭異。
But what seem like little things now were back then actually rather big things.
但是，你們現在覺得是小事情的東西，在過去可能是很重要的事情。
So first let's define what a spice is.
那么，我們先來給香料下一個定義吧！
Technically speaking, a spice is part of an aromatic plant that is not a leaf or herb.
從技術上講，香料是一種帶有香味的植物，而不單純是植物的葉子或者根部。
Spices can come from tree bark like cinnamon, plant roots like ginger, flower buds like cloves.
香料可以由肉桂等植物的樹干，姜等的根，四葉草等的花蕾制成。
And in the Middle Ages. Europeans were familiar with lots of different spices, most important being pepper, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, maize and nutmeg.
并且在中世紀的時候，歐洲人已經知道許許多多種香料了，其中最重要的有胡椒、丁香、姜、肉桂、玉薯和豆蔻。
These spices literarily dominated the way Europeans lived for centuries, how they traded and even how they used their imaginations.
這些香料幾個世紀以來一直都駕馭著歐洲人的生活，甚至貿易以及思維。
So why this medieval fascination with spices?
這樣的話，我們不禁會問：為什么中世紀的人們如此沉迷于香料？
We can boil it down to there general ideas briefly.
我們可以歸因于三條主要原因，
One was cost and rarity.
其一是價值和稀有性，
Uh two was exotic taste and fragrance.
其二是域外風味和香味，
And third, mysterious origins and kinds of mythical status.
第三則是香料的某種神秘性。
Now for cost and rarity, spices aren't native to Europe and they had to be imported.
第一條是香料的價值和稀有性。歐洲并不能生產香料，所以必須依靠進口。
Spices only grew in the East Indies and of course transportation costs astronomical, so spices were incredibly valuable even from the very beginning.
香料只能產于東印度一代，所以運輸的費用是難以相信的天文數字。
Here is an example. In 408 AD, the Gothic General who captured Rome demanded payment.
譬如，公元 408 年，占領了羅馬的哥特將軍索要贖金。
He wanted 5000 pounds of gold among other things but he also wanted 3000 pounds of pepper.
他想要 5000 磅黃金，外加其他的東西，但他同時想要 3000 磅胡椒。
Maybe that would give you an idea of exactly where pepper stood at the time.
這個例子可能很精確地告訴你胡椒的價值所在。
By the Middle Ages, spices were regarded as so important and expensive they were used in diplomacy, as gifts by heads of state and ambassadors.
到中世紀，香料極其受到重視，異常昂貴，甚至被用到了外交場合，被用作贈送給外國元首或使節的禮物。
Now for the taste.
第二是香料的口味。
The diet then was relatively bland, compared to today's. There wasn't much variety.
和今天相比，中世紀時候人們的口味是比較溫和的，菜品味道沒有什么變化。
Especially the aristocracy who tended to eat a lot of meat, they were always looking for new ways to prepare it, new sources, new tastes and this is where spices came in.
經常享受肉食的貴族們總是希望有更多烹制肉食的方式，調料，味道，這就是香料發揮作用的地方了。
Now, this is a good point to mention one of the biggest myths about spices.
在這里講講香料最吸引人的一個秘密似乎最為合適了。
It's commonly said that medieval Europeans wanted spices to cover up the taste of spoiled meat.
一般都認為中世紀的歐洲人使用香料的目的，是要掩蓋肉食變質的味道。
But this isn't really true.
但實際上并不是這么回事。
Anyone who had to worry about spoiled meat couldn't afford spices in the first place.
首先，那些操心肉食會腐敗變質的人，是負擔不起香料的費用的。
If you could afford spices, you could definitely afford fresh meat.
如果你買得起香料，你就買得起鮮肉。
We also have evidence that various medieval markets employed a kind of police to make sure that people did not sell spoiled food, and if you were caught doing it, you were subject to various fines, humiliating public punishments.
我們還能找到許多相關證據，表明中世紀時各種市場都采用了嚴格的措施保證商販不出售變質的肉。如果商販因為出售爛肉被逮住了，他會面臨罰款以及各種喪失顏面的懲罰。
So what actually was true was this:In order to have meat for the winter, people would preserve it in salt, not a spice.
所以，事實上是這么回事：為了在冬季能吃上肉，人們會先把肉制品用鹽腌制，而不是用香料。
Spices actually aren't very effective as preservatives. And throughout winter, they would eat salted meat, but the taste of the stuff could grow really boring and depressing after a while.
并且香料并不是什么好的防腐劑。而且，整個冬天，人們都只能吃咸的腌肉，一段時間后，大家會對這種單調的口味感到厭倦。
So the cook started looking for new ways to improve the taste and spices were the answer, which brings us to mysterious origins and mythical status.
所以，廚師就開始探索提升口味的新措施，所以他們就發現了香料。而香料神秘莫測的來源和地位正是來源于此。
Now the ancient Romans had a thriving spice trade and they sent their ships to the east and back.
古羅馬帝國的香料貿易非常興盛；他們派遣船只來往于東西方，進行香料交易。
But when Rome collapsed in the fifth century and the Middle Ages began, direct trade stopped, and so did that kind of hands-on knowledge of travel and geography.
但到了 5 世紀，羅馬帝國崩塌了，中世紀開始了，香料直接貿易終止了，所以人們對于香料的運輸和來源的直接認識也就中斷了。
Spices now came by way of the trade routes with lots of intermediaries between the producer and the consumer.
之后，香料輾轉幾手，在生產商和顧客之間曲折多次才能完成交易，
So these spices took on an air of mystery.
這樣一來，香料看上去就很神秘莫測了。
Their origins were shrouded in exotic travels.
香料來自遙遠的他鄉，
They had the allure of the unknown, of wild places. Myths grew up of fantasy lands, magical faraway places made entirely of food and spices.
它們身上帶著異域的、未知的、野性的誘惑。于是乎，各種魔幻的、滿是香料和食品的大陸的傳說涌現出來。
And to that, spices themselves had always been considered special or magical not just for eating and this was already true in the ancient world where legends about spices were abundant.
并且在這樣一種局面下，香料之所以神奇，并不只是因為它的口味。
Spices inspired the medieval imagination.
它激發了中世紀人們的想象力。
They were used as medicines to ward off diseases, and mixed into perfumes, incent.
它們被用作藥品來驅趕疾病，被加入香水和起味劑中。
They were used in religious rituals for thousands of years.
幾千年來，它們一直被用作宗教祭祀的祭品。
They took on a life of their own and they inspired the medieval imagination, spurred on the age of discovery in the 145th and 16th centuries.
它們不僅展現了它們自己的價值，更激發了中世紀的幻想，激發了 14，15和16世紀人們探索域外的力量。
When famous explorers like Columbus and da Gama and Magellan left Europe in their ships, they weren't looking for a new world; they were looking for spices.
其實，諸如哥倫布，伽達·馬，莫里根這樣的著名探險家驅船離開歐洲，不是想要探索新世界，而是想要尋找香料。
And we know what important historical repercussions some of those voyages had.
這些旅程對于我么人類歷史的重要性我們自然是耳熟能祥的。
