From its Birthplace in Egypt to Marseilles,an Ancient Trade: ‘Drugs and Spices’

Abstract

This report is the testimony of a man who worked with plants, specifically, in what used to be called the ‘drugs and spices’ trade, selling simples for around 40 years. And what better vantage-point than the trader’s to trace, over several decades, the evolution of the attitude of French people (and Europeans more generally) towards plants and, by extension, towards ‘nature’? Beneath the need for medicinal plants, seasonings or flavourings there is a hidden desire of varying strength for ‘nature’. This account describes the decline and disappearance of herbalism, the ‘return’ to plants and the ‘organic’ movement, the manipulations that ran alongside that ‘comeback’, and the market in ‘bogus nature’ created by the synthesizing laboratories.