One of Sri Lanka’s most attractive commodities, in the eyes of the Portuguese and Dutch, was the plentiful Cinnamon which grew along the west coast of Sri Lanka. Today Sri Lanka is still producing over 90% of the world’s cinnamon.

Cinnamon — “the bride around whom they danced” — grew wild in the jungles and was in huge demand in Europe, where it was much sought after for its distinctive flavor and for its efficacy in relieving air trapped in the bowels. That found in the Negombo area was traditionally regarded as the sweetest and most highly prized.

Cinnamon grew wild in the damp, elephant-infested jungle. Collecting it was hard, dangerous work and the exclusive job of the Choliah caste. Tubes of cinnamon were bundled up and taken to “surgeons” who bit off pieces to assess quality, the premium being on milder varieties without an aftertaste. A ritual slice of bread was eaten between batches, not to cleanse the palate in the wine-tasting sense but to ease pain; a repeated mouthful of cinnamon was torture on the tongue.

Cinnamon was so valuable that it was made a capital offense to damage plants, which grew up to 3 meters (10 ft) in height, or to sell it on the black market. However, Arab traders were more familiar with the coastline than Dutch naval patrols, so contraband cinnamon and even elephants went out; Indian rice and textiles came the other way.