Mamluk Sultan Barsbay Monopolizes Spice Trade

1426

The Mamluk sultan of Egypt imposed a comprehensive royal monopoly on the enormously profitable spice trade passing through the ports of Alexandria and Beirut, taxing Venetian and Genoese merchants heavily on every sack of pepper and cinnamon. European frustration with Mamluk price controls and arbitrary tariffs became one of the driving commercial forces behind Portuguese exploration of an alternate sea route to India around the southern cape of Africa.