The first trip around the world or how olive oil marked globalization

The five ships of the expedition of the first circumnavigation of the world (St. Anthony, Trinity, Conception, Victoria y Santiago), commanded by Ferdinand Magellan and who left Seville in August 1519, stored 475 arrobas (5,966 liters) of olive oil in their cellars, with a total price of 58,425 maravedis, plus another 4,925 maravedis for the value of the vessels, according to the records preserved in the General Archive of the Indies in Seville.

According to naval historian Vicente Ruiz García, “olive oil became the ingredient that best represented the culinary fusion between the so-called New and Old Worlds and a reference for what we call first globalization.” Ruiz, who is an advisor to the Chair of History and Naval Heritage at the University of Murcia, is the author of the book The sea, olive oil and the first globalization (Onada Edicions), which is completed with 21 gastronomic proposals that pay tribute to all those men who suffered many hardships in that key feat to understand world trade.

Both the first voyage of Christopher Columbus and that of Ferdinand Magellan had the objective of finding a route to Maluco (Moluccas) in search of the desired and sought-after spices, substances that were used to preserve food. “But after traveling thousands of miles and even completing a trip around the world, it is at least paradoxical that one of the best food preservatives was carried on board: olive oil,” explains Ruiz, doctor in History and secretary of the UNED in Jaén.

The power of olive oil as a food preservative was known since ancient times. The first European civilizations that used oil, preferably olive oil, for this function were the Etruscans, the Greeks and the Romans. And the reason must be found in its content of polyphenols and vitamin E, which isolates food and prevents its contact with microorganisms, guaranteeing its healthiness.

Magellan’s ships crossed the autumn equinox in the southern hemisphere sailing off the coast of Argentina. There were only 10 days left until they anchored in the Port of San Julián, where they would spend the winter. Meanwhile, on March 21, 1520, very far from there, the officials of the Casa de Contratación of Seville paid Juan de Baena, mayor of the town of Olivares (Seville), the amount of 50 olive tree stakes taken from the roots. at 20 maravedis each and another 1,200 thin stakes for another 1,800 maravedis. “These were the first olive tree seedlings that were going to go to the New World, specifically to the island of Hispaniola,” says Ruiz.

Francisco de Aguirre de Meneses, of Spanish origin, was the first mayor of the council of Santiago de Chile. He had traveled to the Indies in 1536 and participated for three years in the conquest of present-day Bolivia, accompanying Pedro de Valdivia on the expedition to conquer Chile (1540). And there, as Ruiz recalls, he ordered the planting of olive trees in large areas of Peru, Chile and northern Argentina, especially in the region of Santiago del Estero, a city founded by himself.

One of the pioneer examples in the New World is still preserved: the historic olive tree of Arauco (declared a natural monument), more than 400 years old, which survived the felling ordered in the 18th century by the king of Spain for the purpose to protect the production of the metropolis.

The Manila galleon was the name given to the ships that crossed the Pacific following the route to Manila (Philippines) and Acapulco (New Spain). One of these ships was the San Diego, which sank in 1600 in the waters of the Philippine archipelago after an attack suffered by a Dutch ship. Four centuries later the wreck was discovered and among the material that could be rescued was a set of jars, of between four and 15 liters each, from the potteries of Jaén. “It was a privileged transportation system for olives and olive oil, both for the consumption of the crew and for the export of these goods that were so in demand in the Indies,” says the author of the study, which has been awarded the VII International Prize for Cookbook, Health and Sustainability Ciutat de Benicarló.

According to the historian, “the Manila galleon unified the world for economic purposes for the first time because, although there had been precedents such as the Silk Road or the contemporary Spice Route, none of them reached that geographical dimension, which linked three continents with repercussions that went beyond the commercial and affected culture or the expansion of food.”

The galleons that left Mexico sailed to the Philippines, where the memory of olive oil in some of their dishes has remained as a hallmark of Hispanic gastronomy in a country where not even the language has remained. “The globalization of flavors allowed ingredients such as olive oil to leave the holds of ships to take root on Philippine soil in dishes of clear Hispanic heritage that today are part of the cuisine of the archipelago, such as caldereta, longganisa or Filipino sausage or chicken and pork adobo,” explains Ruiz.

Monte Testaccio

But before that first globalization, there is documentary evidence of the olive oil trade since the time of the Phoenicians. In Rome there is an artificial mountain, called Testaccio, where 26 million broken vessels rest that for centuries were deposited in this place and that contained olive oil originating from Baetica and Tarraconense, provinces of Hispania. The site was not discovered until 1878, but researchers date its date of establishment between the years 138 and 260.

These amphorae were taken to small river ports from where oil barges departed and sailed through the leaden waters of the Betis River until they reached the bridge of Hispalis, where the amphorae were stowed on larger ships to reach Britain or the Mediterranean. “Mount Testaccio reflects the importance of olive oil as a unifying element of the Roman Empire which, together with the language, Latin, constituted the most determining element in a primitive process of globalization in Antiquity,” asserts Ruiz.

In his opinion, this process of globalization would extend across a large part of the European shore of the Our sea and for the ancient possessions of Carthage, “achieving economic union, legal unification, awareness of Roman citizenship and linguistic unity of such a vast space.” Although it was the Phoenicians who brought olive oil to old Iberia three thousand years ago, centuries later it spread to other continents across the oceans, “leaving an indelible mark on the gastronomy of those remote countries with which in the past we share the same heritage.”