Roger Crowley

They haven't worked out the pattern of the winds.

So repeatedly, the Spanish expeditions sail over there.

There's a bit of fighting goes on.

They can't sail back.

The Portuguese capture them and repatriate them on their own ships.

So the Pacific Ocean is like a lobster pot, if you like, for the Spanish.

It's a trap that they can't get out of.

This is a conundrum which they can't solve.

And for quite a long time, it leaves the Portuguese in complete control of the spice trade.

Trade does rapidly get overtaken by empire building.

And there are two things going on here, really.

One is that the Portuguese send out governors on four-year contracts.

And the aim of these guys is to get as rich as possible as they can in their four years.

They are extremely exploitative of the local population.

One governor who sends out was a man called Antonio Galvao.

who observes the terrible things that the portuguese are doing and really he says spices are the source of all evil because it was just a quick get as rich as you can and go home we're not interested in the local people we exploit them as much as we can it's early colonialism on a grand scale the spanish are doing more or less the same thing so it's really a kind of early example of

European plunder of the world, I think.

And those who were sensitive to it, such as Galvao, were horrified by what the Portuguese were doing and the consequences of it.

It is a violent foundation.

It certainly is.