Cinnamon is a sweet, fragrant spice produced from the inner bark of trees of the genus Cinnamomum, which is native to the Indian sub-continent. It was known in biblical times, and is mentioned in several books of the Bible, both as an ingredient that was mixed with oils for anointing people's bodies, and also as a token indicating friendship among lovers and friends. In ancient Rome, mourners attending funerals burnt cinnamon to create a pleasant scent. Most often, however, the spice found its primary use as an additive to food and drink. In the Middle Ages, Europeans who could afford the spice used it to flavour food, particularly meat, and to impress those around them with their ability to purchase an expensive condiment from the 'exotic' East. At a banquet, a host would offer guests a plate with various spices piled upon it as a sign of the wealth at his or her disposal. Cinnamon was also reported to have health benefits, and was thought to cure various ailments, such as indigestion.

肉桂是一种甜味、芬芳的香料，产自肉桂树的内层树皮，原产地是印度次大陆。早在圣经时期就已为人们所知晓，在《圣经》的好几个章节中都有所提及，既是作为一种与油混在一起用来涂抹人们身体的原料，也是作为一种展示爱人和朋友间情谊的象征。在古罗马，参加葬礼的哀悼者们会燃烧肉桂来制造一种令人心怡的气味。不过，这种香料最常见的用途，主要还是作为食品和饮料的一种添加剂。在中世纪，买得起这种香料的欧洲人用它来给食物，特别是肉类，进行调味，以及向周围的人炫耀自己有能力购买一种来自于东方的昂贵佐料。在宴会上，主人们会为客人们奉上一个盘子，里面摆放着各式各样的调味品，以此来显示他或她拥有多少财富可供支配。肉桂还被记载为有益健康，被认为能治疗多种小病小痛，例如消化不良。

Toward the end of the Middle Ages, the European middle classes began to desire the lifestyle of the elite, including their consumption of spices. This led to a growth in demand for cinnamon and other spices. At that time, cinnamon was transported by Arab merchants, who closely guarded the secret of the source of the spice from potential rivals. They took it from India, where it was grown, on camels via an overland route to the Mediterranean. Their journey ended when they reached Alexandria. European traders sailed there to purchase their supply of cinnamon, then brought it back to Venice. The spice then travelled from that great trading city to markets all around Europe. Because the overland trade route allowed for only small quantities of the spice to reach Europe, and because Venice had a virtual monopoly of the trade, the Venetians could set the price of cinnamon exorbitantly high. These prices, coupled with the increasing demand, spurred the search for new routes to Asia by Europeans eager to take part in the spice trade.

到了中世纪末期，欧洲的中产阶级开始渴望精英阶层的生活方式，包括他们对各种香料的消费。这导致了对肉桂和其他调料的需求增长。当时，肉桂是由阿拉伯商人们进行运输的，他们严密地保守着这种香料的来源，不让其他潜在竞争者知道。他们将它从生长之地印度取走，放在骆驼上经由一条路上路线运到地中海地区。他们的旅途终点是亚历山大港，欧洲商人们会航行到那里去购买他们提供的肉桂，再把它带回到威尼斯。这种香料接下来再从这个贸易城辗转去到整个欧洲的市场。由于陆上贸易路线使得每次只能携带少量这种香料到欧洲，也由于威尼斯对这项生意有着实际的垄断权，因此威尼斯人得以将肉桂的价格制定的高得离谱。这样的价位，再加上不断上涨的需求，刺激了急于加入香料贸易的欧洲人去寻找通往亚洲的新路线。

Seeking the high profits promised by the cinnamon market, Portuguese traders arrived on the island of Ceylon in the Indian Ocean toward the end of the 15th century. Before Europeans arrived on the island, the state had organized the cultivation of cinnamon. People belonging to the ethnic group called the Salagama would peel the bark off young shoots of the cinnamon plant in the rainy season, when the wet bark was more pliable. During the peeling process, they curled the bark into the 'stick' shape still associated with the spice today. The Salagama then gave the finished product to the king as a form of tribute. When the Portuguese arrived, they needed to increase production significantly, and so enslaved many other members of the Ceylonese native population, forcing them to work in cinnamon harvesting. In 1518, the Portuguese built a fort on Ceylon, which enabled them to protect the island, so helping them to develop a monopoly in the cinnamon trade and generate very high profits. In the late 16th century, for example, they enjoyed a tenfold profit when shipping cinnamon over a journey of eight days from Ceylon to India.

追逐着肉桂市场的高利润，葡萄牙商人们在接近15世纪末的时候来到了印度洋上的锡兰岛。在欧洲人来到岛上之前，当地统治者已经在有组织地进行肉桂采集了。被称为Salagama 的少数名族会在雨季里将树皮从肉桂树的嫩枝上剥离下来，此时潮湿的树皮更为柔韧可塑。在剥皮的过程中，他们把树皮卷成了直到今天还与这种香料联系在一起的“棍状”。然后Salagama 人会将制好的成品作为一种形式的贡品献给国王。等葡萄牙人到达以后，他们需要大幅度增加产量，因此奴役了锡兰岛上许多其他的原住民人口，逼迫他们进行采集肉桂的劳动。在1518年，葡萄牙人在锡兰建起了一座堡垒，这令他们得以守护该岛，因此帮他们树立起了肉桂贸易中的垄断地位并产生了极高的利润。例如，在16世纪后期，他们通过8天的行程将肉桂从锡兰运往印度，从中能够享受10倍的利润。

When the Dutch arrived off the coast of southern Asia at the very beginning of the 17th century, they set their sights on displacing the Portuguese as kings of cinnamon. The Dutch allied themselves with Kandy, an inland kingdom on Ceylon. In return for payments of elephants and cinnamon, they protected the native king from the Portuguese. By 1640, the Dutch broke the 150-year Portuguese monopoly when they overran and occupied their factories. By 1658, they had permanently expelled the Portuguese from the island, thereby gaining control of the lucrative cinnamon trade.

当荷兰人在17世纪初来到南亚的海岸边时，他们将目光瞄准了代替葡萄牙人成为肉桂之王这个目标。荷兰人与锡兰境内的一个岛国Kandy 建立了联盟关系，作为对方支付大象和肉桂的回报，他们保护了本土国王不受葡萄牙人的欺压。到1640年的时候，荷兰人打破了葡萄牙人150年来的垄断，推翻了后者并占领了其工厂。到1658年，他们已经永久性地将葡萄牙人从岛上驱逐了出去，由此赢得了对一本万利的肉桂买卖的控制。

In order to protect their hold on the market, the Dutch, like the Portuguese before them, treated the native inhabitants harshly. Because of the need to boost production and satisfy Europe's ever-increasing appetite for cinnamon, the Dutch began to alter the harvesting practices of the Ceylonese. Over time, the supply of cinnamon trees on the island became nearly exhausted, due to systematic stripping of the bark. Eventually, the Dutch began cultivating their own cinnamon trees to supplement the diminishing number of wild trees available for use.

为了保住自己对市场的掌控，荷兰人就像在他们之前的葡萄牙人那样，以非常严格的方式对待岛上的居民。出于不断提升产量的需要，也为了满足欧洲对肉桂不断攀升的胃口，荷兰人开始改变锡兰人的采集方法。随着时间的推移，岛上的肉桂树供应由于大规模的剥皮做法而逐渐几近耗尽。最终，荷兰人开始培植他们自己的肉桂树来补充野生树木数量的减少，以供继续生产使用。

Then, in 1796, the English arrived on Ceylon, thereby displacing the Dutch from their control of the cinnamon monopoly. By the middle of the 19th century, production of cinnamon reached 1,000 tons a year, after a (lower grade quality of the spice became acceptable to European tastes. By that time, (cinnamon was being grown in other parts of the Indian Ocean region and in the West Indies, Brazil, and Guyana. Not only was a monopoly of cinnamon becoming impossible, but the spice trade overall was diminishing in economic potential, and was eventually superseded by the rise of trade in coffee, tea, chocolate, and sugar.

接下来，在1796年，英国人来到了锡兰，就此取代了荷兰人对肉桂的垄断。到19世纪中期的时候，一种品质较低的肉桂得到了欧洲人口味的认可，这种香料的生产随后达到了每年1000吨。此时，肉桂已经被种植在印度洋地区的其他许多地带，以及西印度群岛、巴西和圭亚那。不但对肉桂的垄断正在变得不再可能，而且这种香料贸易总体上的经济潜力也在缩减，最终被咖啡、茶叶、巧克力和糖的交易上升所超越。