Cinnamon is one of the oldest spices in recorded human history, traded across continents for at least 4,000 years. Its story spans ancient Egyptian burial rites, elaborate merchant deceptions, colonial wars, and a global industry that today produces hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of bark annually. Few spices have shaped trade routes, inspired legends, and maintained cultural relevance as consistently as cinnamon.
Ancient Origins and Early Use
Cinnamon’s earliest known connections trace to ancient Egypt, where spices played a central role in mummification. Artificial mummification began during the Old Kingdom, around 2700 to 2200 BCE, and embalmers used a wide array of aromatic materials to preserve corpses and protect them from biological decomposition. These included coniferous resins, oils from pine and cedar, gum resins like myrrh and frankincense, vegetable oils, animal fats, and various spices and herbs. Cinnamon, prized for its antimicrobial properties and strong fragrance, fit naturally into this toolkit.
Meanwhile, in South and East Asia, cinnamon was already woven into daily life. In traditional Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine, practitioners prescribed it for a range of ailments. It was used as a tooth powder and to treat dental problems, oral infections, and bad breath. Healers recognized it as a coagulant that could help prevent bleeding, and it was believed to increase blood circulation in the uterus and promote tissue regeneration. These medicinal uses persisted for centuries and formed the backbone of cinnamon’s reputation as more than just a flavoring.
Sacred Spice in Religious Texts
Cinnamon appears in some of the most significant passages of the Hebrew Bible. In Exodus 30:23, it is listed as an ingredient in the holy anointing oil, a sacred blend that functioned as a symbol of God’s holiness and beauty. The spice also surfaces in the Book of Revelation (18:13), where it appears among the earthly treasures received not merely as a trade commodity but as acceptable tribute for worship. These references underscore how valuable cinnamon was in the ancient Near East, placed alongside gold, incense, and precious stones as offerings worthy of the divine.
Myths That Protected a Monopoly
For much of antiquity, Arab and Phoenician traders controlled the flow of cinnamon from its sources in South and Southeast Asia to buyers around the Mediterranean. To keep competitors from cutting into their profits, these merchants invented fantastical stories about where cinnamon came from and how dangerous it was to obtain.
The Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BCE, recorded one such tale: cassia, a close relative of cinnamon, supposedly grew in a lake guarded by winged creatures resembling bats, which “screeched alarmingly and were very pugnacious.” As UNESCO’s Silk Roads Programme notes, these stories were almost certainly invented by merchants who wished to protect their sources from competitors and obscure the true geographic origins of their spices. The strategy worked remarkably well. For centuries, European buyers had no idea that cinnamon came from the bark of trees growing in present-day Sri Lanka, southern China, and Southeast Asia.
The Spice Trade and Colonial Rivalries
By the medieval period, cinnamon had become one of the most sought-after commodities in global trade. Venetian and Genoese merchants served as intermediaries between Arab suppliers and European markets, and the markup at each step made cinnamon extraordinarily expensive. A pound of cinnamon could cost the equivalent of several months’ wages for a common laborer in medieval Europe.
The desire to bypass these middlemen and access cinnamon (and other spices) at the source was a driving force behind the Age of Exploration. Portuguese sailors reached Sri Lanka in 1505 and quickly moved to control its cinnamon trade. They built a fort in Colombo and imposed harsh terms on local kingdoms, demanding enormous quantities of cinnamon bark as tribute. The Dutch seized control from the Portuguese in the mid-1600s and tightened the monopoly further, going so far as to destroy cinnamon trees growing outside their territory to keep prices high. The British took over in 1796, but by then cinnamon cultivation had spread to other tropical regions, and the monopoly’s grip was weakening.
This colonial competition left deep marks on Sri Lanka’s economy and culture. For nearly three centuries, European powers shaped the island’s politics, labor systems, and land use around the production of a single spice.
Two Types of Cinnamon
What most people call “cinnamon” actually comes from two distinct species. Ceylon cinnamon, sometimes marketed as “true cinnamon,” comes from trees native to Sri Lanka. Cassia cinnamon, also called Chinese cinnamon, comes from a related species grown primarily in China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The genus includes more than 250 species, but these two dominate global commerce.
The distinction matters beyond botany. Ceylon cinnamon has a milder, more complex flavor and contains very low levels of coumarin, a naturally occurring compound that can stress the liver in large amounts. Cassia cinnamon is bolder in taste and significantly higher in coumarin. Most of the ground cinnamon sold in supermarkets in North America is cassia, while Ceylon cinnamon is more common in European and South Asian markets. If you’re buying cinnamon sticks, Ceylon rolls into thin, layered quills, while cassia forms a single thick curl.
Global Production Today
Cinnamon production is concentrated in a handful of countries, most of them in Asia. As of 2023, China leads global output, followed by Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Madagascar. China and Indonesia together account for the largest share of the market, though much of their production is cassia rather than Ceylon cinnamon. Sri Lanka remains the world’s primary source of true Ceylon cinnamon but produces far less by volume, reflecting the higher labor costs of harvesting its thinner, more delicate bark.
Vietnam has emerged as a fast-growing producer, with output increasing at roughly 5.6% annually over the past five years. Indonesia’s production, by contrast, has been essentially flat or slightly declining over the same period. Madagascar rounds out the top five, supplying a small but growing share of the global market.
The spice that once inspired myths about bat-guarded lakes and motivated colonial wars is now a global commodity worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Yet its basic appeal hasn’t changed much in four millennia: a warm, distinctive flavor and a fragrance that people across cultures have found irresistible since the earliest days of recorded trade.