The Italian merchants sometimes sailed across the Mediterranean Sea to Syria , where they could buy black pepper that had been grown on the southwest coast of India. The tiny dried black peppercorns were the perfect item to trade, because the small ships of the time could carry enough to make a nice profit. From India the pepper was shipped across to Arabia, where camel caravans would carry it all the way to Syria. The Italians could purchase enough pepper in Syria to carry with them to the next Champagne fair. Every count whose cook added the bite of costly black pepper to his food knew he was getting a taste of far distant lands. As late as 1300, Jean de Joieville , a French writer who had actually lived in the Muslim world, still believed that these spices came from the outer edges of the Garden of Eden, located somewhere along the river Nile. There, people "cast their nets outspread into the river, at night; and when morning comes, they find in their nets such goods as __ ginger, which wond of alann and nin What is the central idea of the passage? In the Middle Ages ,spices that are now ordinary were rare imports from faraway places. The spices at the Champagne fair were from the Middle East, where they were used in cooking. Pepper was highly regarded in Europe, so merchants demanded more and more of it. The Champagne fairs relied on a vast trade network that drove up the prices of new and rare goods.

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The Italian merchants sometimes sailed across the Mediterranean Sea to Syria , where they could buy black pepper that had been grown on the southwest coast of India. The tiny dried black peppercorns were the perfect item to trade, because the small ships of the time could carry enough to make a nice profit. From India the pepper was shipped across to Arabia, where camel caravans would carry it all the way to Syria. The Italians could purchase enough pepper in Syria to carry with them to the next Champagne fair. Every count whose cook added the bite of costly black pepper to his food knew he was getting a taste of far distant lands. As late as 1300, Jean de Joieville , a French writer who had actually lived in the Muslim world, still believed that these spices came from the outer edges of the Garden of Eden, located somewhere along the river Nile. There, people "cast their nets outspread into the river, at night; and when morning comes, they find in their nets such goods as __ ginger, which wond of alann and nin What is the central idea of the passage? In the Middle Ages ,spices that are now ordinary were rare imports from faraway places. The spices at the Champagne fair were from the Middle East, where they were used in cooking. Pepper was highly regarded in Europe, so merchants demanded more and more of it. The Champagne fairs relied on a vast trade network that drove up the prices of new and rare goods.

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From a reading comprehension standpoint, the passage talks primarily about the historical trade route for black pepper from India, via Arabia to Italy, culiminating at the Champagne fair. It vaguely alludes to the long-distance nature of the economy at that time-http://ieexport.com/2011/12/05/the-spice-route-vii-16th-c-europe/ also embodied in the valuable acquisition of pepper by Italian merchants. The text then also draws a scene about what it was like to taste peppers. However, rather than focusing on specific locations or referral peppercorns such as Italy or the Middle East, or soleiplifies the broad extent and impact of trading routes in those eras--typified by the specific case of the huge spice trading channel (like pepper). It spoke of a considerably far-reaching trade network that was indicative of the increasingly interconnected global trade developments before speeds.

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