Spices have been important throughout history as a means of prestige as well as for flavoring and preserving foods. Their value can be seen as early as 408 AD, when a ransom was given to Alaric the Visigothic of three-thousand pounds of pepper, along with thirty thousand pounds of silver, five thousand pounds of gold, and four thousand silk tunics (Wernick 129). I plan to discuss the qualities of the most popular spices, the history of the …showed first 75 words of 1274 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1274 total…use of spices has led indirectly to the "age of discovery" as explorers set out to find new ways to get to the precious commodity. Spices have helped to make the life of the average person more enjoyable by flavoring tasteless foods and by preserving foods that would otherwise be unavailable during certain times in the year. Also used as symbols of wealth or prestige, spices have been influenced history for over four thousand years.