Spice Ports and The Origins of Global Sea Trade

This is an in-person only event in the Eliot Room, British Library Knowledge Centre. 
 
We are familiar with the Silk Roads, the overland routes connecting Europe to China, along which not only goods but also ideas, knowledge, and culture were exchanged. Equally significant, however, were the Spice Ports. In this illustrated lecture, Nicholas Nugent, drawing from his book The Spice Ports: Mapping the Origins of Global Sea Trade, explores the story of these vital trading hubs. From the bustling ports of the West—Venice, Amsterdam, Lisbon—to the exotic ports of the East, including Malacca, Goa, and Bombay, seafarers, with the aid of new technologies, charted routes across the oceans driven by the pursuit of exploration, trade, and profit. 
 
Nicholas Nugent spent his career as a journalist with the BBC World Service, and his spare time collecting a valuable archive of original maps and thus developed a passion for how the growth of the spice ports helped spread the exchange of global culture between East and West. 
 
This event accompanies the British Library exhibition A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang (27 September – 23 February 2025) 
 
Half price tickets available for Members, Students, Under 26 and other concession groups.  

Doors and Bar open at 18:00.  Please arrive no later than 15 minutes before the start time of this event. 
 
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