The Pepper Question in the mid-16th century. A political debate during the government of D. João de Castro

In 1545, apparently following a suggestion made to him by someone unknown, King João III proposed a complete reform of the pepper trade in the Indian Ocean, which until then had been a royal monopoly, adopting a system similar to that adopted years earlier for sugar. João III proposed completely reforming the pepper trade in the Indian Ocean, which until then had been a royal monopoly, adopting a system for pepper similar to the one he had adopted years earlier for cloves from the Moluccas: any surplus from the Kingdom's ships would be sold to merchants, who would take it to Bengal, Pegu, China, Ormuz and other places.

At the same time, the exploitation of the small Banda archipelago, where nutmeg and mace came from, would be leased to private individuals. In short, the project was apparently one of the chapters of the instructions given by the sovereign to D. João de Castro, who was sent to India that year as governor.

This study was conducted by Luís Filipe R. Thomaz based on information gathered from manuscripts in national and foreign archives on the trade in spices from the East. The documents collected reveal the political struggles surrounding the pepper trade in the Indian Ocean.

The study was published in the ‘Estudos e Documentos’ collection edited by CEPCEP.