History of The World in 6 Glasses - High Seas High Spirits Summary

Image: Ancient Distilling apparatus

Summary of: High Spirits High Seas

This chapter explores how the first distilling apparatus were made and how the discovery of spirits and hard alcohol drove discovery, sugar production, and the slave trade. The chapter starts off by describing the cultural power house of the time, Cordoba. Cordoba was advanced because they had street lights, a complex sewer system, and the largest library of knowledge at the time. This allowed them to invent and innovate using knowledge that may have been lost or forgotten. One of these inventions was the distillery. The Arabians built this apparatus by looking at books in their library dating back to ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Greece. They based this device off of something that was originally used to create perfume. The first hard alcohol created was fire water, or aqua vitae (life water). The process of making this alcohol was first recorded in code, because it was so powerful. Alcohol was used as a panacea for a long time. Eventually however the process of distilling eventually reached Europe where the drink turned into less of a medicine and more of a recreational drug. Each region had its own distilled drink that was made using region specific ingredients. Brandy, made in England was one of the most valuable trade commodities at the time. The Persians needed more slaves to run their sugar plantations because they were the world's number one exporter of sugar at the time so the Spanish in an attempt to compete with this went to Barbados to try to grow sugar. When the British trade for slaves the African traders would hold alcoholic drinks of high value. The British figured out if they distilled their alcohol they could hold more on the ship, rather than other countries method of using beer instead. In Barbados they figured out they could use the sugar reclaim to make rum. Rum was used to subdue slaves as well as a form of social control. The British again figured out if they mixed rum with water and lemon and lime juice they could make "grog" which held off scurvy allowing the British to hold their naval superiority.