Ports That Changed Palates. Trade Migration and Everyday Exchange

Global history can be tasted in ordinary meals. As spices passed through entrepôts and imperial ports, they entered kitchens, pharmacies, religious practices, and systems of status. This study centers the communities that handled, interpreted, and consumed these goods: brokers, dockworkers, migrants, cooks, healers, and households. It shows how maritime trade reshaped local habits without producing simple cultural replacement.
Through encounters in port cities and along inland routes, ingredients acquired new meanings and societies absorbed distant influences. The result is a human-scale history of exchange, adaptation, and the uneven circulation of taste.