VI 
CINNAMON 
207 
cinnamon and cassia were valued in Biblical times, and 
are often mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. 
A spice-bark supposed to be cassia is mentioned as 
imported into Egypt with other Eastern products in 
the seventeenth century B.C., and cinnamon and cassia 
are recorded among offerings to Apollo at Miletus by 
Seleucus II. in 243 B.c. 
There is, however, no record of cinnamon being 
produced by Ceylon in the annals of China, though there 
was a constant commercial intercourse between Ceylon 
and China, nor in the ancient Singhalese writings till 
A.D. 1275, when it is mentioned by an Arab writer 
Kaswini, as a product of Ceylon, and in 1292 by a friar, 
John of Montecorvins, who writes that “ a great store 
of its bark is carried forth from the island near by 
Malabar.’’ Ibn Batuta, the Mohammedan traveller, in 
1340, and Nicolo Conti, a century later, mention it as 
a Ceylon plant, and describe it. 
In 1505, the Portuguese circumnavigating the Cape 
of Good Hope discovered Ceylon, and occupied the 
island in 1536 for the sake of the cinnamon. 
The finer quality of the Ceylon cinnamon, as com- 
pared with that of Malabar, known as Canella trista, 
was pointed out by Barbosa, and Garcia da Orta says 
that while 100 lbs. of Ceylon cinnamon was worth 10 
gold, 40 lbs. of the Malabar bark was only worth 1. 
The Ceylon cinnamon at this time was all derived 
from wild trees, the Portuguese compelling the Singhalese 
kings to bring it as a tribute. A peculiar caste of 
Indians, known as Chulias, became the collectors of 
cinnamon, and were cruelly oppressed by the Portuguese 
and later by the Dutch, who took Ceylon from them 
about 1656 and made a monopoly of the spice. In 
1770 De Koke started the cultivation of the tree, and 
the Dutch, from the territory which they had annexed, 
obtained 400,000 lbs, of cinnamon yearly, completely 
ruling the trade, burning the cinnamon in Holland when 
the supply was too large and the price fell. The 
English in 1796 took Ceylon from the Dutch, and the 
