Seeing Red?

As some of my colleagues have pointed out (notably James and Susan), A Perfect Red is a rather balanced type of history. We are not reading from Mintz, who set out with a thesis already in mind as he wrote his book, nor from the Coes, who tended to the frothy top level of social effects chocolate had. Amy Greenfield (an ironic name considering the book itself) poses a multi faceted history, where politics, culture and economics all come into play. These characters are not the singularly mercantile jackals Mintz depicted, nor the jolly royalty of the Coes. In short, Greenfield puts serious thought and depth into the people of the story.

However, while my compatriots have noted how closely the commodity was guarded (in this case, cochineal), I would like to point out the oddities of this particular commodity. Firstly, that cochineal didn't have the immediate impact on culture that chocolate or even sugar had. The dye had managed to find its way into markets by way of preexisting notions about vivid red dye. To this existent, this might have been the reason the trade degraded while exotic unknown materials like cocoa and tobacco began to rise in popularity. Adding to this, this is a commodity that actually enriched locals rather than enslaving them the way sugar, coffee, and tobacco did.

Perhaps the most interesting factor about the commodity was how exclusive it was, but not because of its secrecy alone. While it was closely guarded, some Europeans like Nicolas-Joseph Thiery did manage to smuggle the insect out. What prevented the trade from widening beyond Mexico in these instances was either the insect's delicate nature, or outright bad luck (as Carl Linnaeus demonstrated).

It is also worth noting (and comparing) that some colonies did maintain monopolies of certain plants in the New World; meaning that there were only certain areas in America that the crop was allowed to be grown. Notably, if I remember correctly, the Portuguese held a monopoly on coffee in Brazil, and prevented other nations from becoming involved in the trade. Ultimately, and favorably for the comparison to Thiery, it was another French spy who managed to steal the seeds by seducing powerful women, and transplanted the seeds elsewhere (I read this in an issue of Mental Floss. If I can find the issue or an online version, I will update this post.) While both men were able to transport the materials, it was the fragility of cochineal that helped to keep it in Mexico during the time. Thus, cochineal is valuable not only by its value to people or even by the hard work needed to produce the dye. It seems unique in the commodities we have looked at in that it was valuable in the same way we might view gold as valuable; that it could only be acquired in certain places under certain conditions.