The Journey Of Liquorice Sweetening Plant From Mesopotamia To England
Would it astound you to know that there are records of liquorice being consumed by the Mesopotamians, Pharaohs, Alexander the Great and Caesar? In those days it was more often drunk than eaten, but its medicinal benefits and capacity to quench thirst were known even then. In addition, Mesopotamians widely used it as a remedy for different ailments. In the UK, the most popular form of liquorice are liquorice sweets. Pontefract in Yorkshire is the first place where liquorice was grown in the UK, and it was where liquorice mixed with sugar started to be used as a sweet in much the same way as it is today. Liquorice is first reported in England as growing at a monastery in Pontefract, from whence its fame spread to the States and beyond - all from the root of a plant related to the pea! Today, Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, located east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. In addition, recent research has shown that liquorice was first introduced to England from Mesopotamia, (modern Iraq), a long time ago!Liquorice was well known to the Mesopotamians as a sweetening source and as a remedy for different kinds of diseases. Indeed, the earliest written record of liquorice in ancient Assyria, Mesopotamia, dates to 2100 BCE in the Code of Hammurabi. Liquorice is one of more than 250 medicinal plants identified from hundreds of clay tablets excavated from the library of King Ashurbanipal of the Assyrians. In addition, the best brand of beer they used to make is the "sweet beer." By the 8th century AD, the Abbasid Caliphate empire inherited and governed Mesopotamia and beyond from their new capital, Baghdad. It is interesting to add that in the Arabic language, Liquorice is known as "As-Sous", which was flourishing during the Abbasid empire (750-1258) and mentioned several times in the grand "Book of Abbasid Cooking" by "Ibn-Sayar-Alwarraq", which was written around the year 960 AD, comprising 555 pages covering 132 chapters. It was also mentioned in the famous medical Arabic books of that period. In cooking, liquorice was used in ancient Assyria and Abbasid Mesopotamia as a highly refreshing cooled drink, (as it is in today's Iraqi and Syrian cities), and as a sweetener and flavouring agent in food. In medicine, it was frequently mentioned in Arabic medical texts to treat cough, asthma, respiratory infections, diuretic and as the drug of choice in gastro-intestinal ailments. During the period 1095 to 1272 AD of the Abbasid era, there were eight separate military Crusades attempting to regain the Holy City of Jerusalem from the Muslim Arabic rule. They were met with a varying degree of success. At one time, the Crusaders held Jerusalem, but they were expelled from the city for the final time in 1244. These expeditions were usually accompanied by groups of monks, especially the Cluniac monks from northern France, who were an offshoot of the Benedictines. By the end of the 12th century there were about 300 of their abbeys in Europe and, of these, 30 were in England, notably at Bermondsey, Reading, Faversham, and Pontefract. The Cluniac monks are thought to have 'discovered' liquorice when accompanying the Crusaders in the Middle East (Old Mesopotamia), where it was already a popular drink and a suitable alternative to the Islamic banned substance, alcohol. It is thought that they then grew liquorice in their herb garden at Pontefract in Yorkshire. This source would encourage the widespread cultivation of the plant in this West Yorkshire area after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in the 1530s. The period from 1400 to 1650 witnessed the great era of the herbalists, including such well-known champions as Gerard and Culpeper. Both these men distinguished that liquorice was a most useful herb and had positive effects in mouth ulcers, dyspepsia, and piles. In the 1820s two major developments took place. A local Pontefract chemist called George Dunhill found that if he added sucrose from cane sugar to a liquorice mix, he could produce a 'sweet.' The second and perhaps even more important development was the introduction of steam power to enable 'punching' and 'stamping' machines to be developed. This allowed the mass production of squares and roundels, the basis of the "Allsorts and Pontefract Cakes of today." From this period onwards, development was explosive. Factories sprang up all over the area. Initially the liquorice produced in the local fields in and around Pontefract, was sufficient to supply the growing local industry, but after several disappointing summer seasons, the local supply proved to be insufficient and untrustworthy. In 1905, the good news on a new source of reliable supply came from the "British Medical Journal" reporting from Baghdad, on the cultivation of Liquorice in Mesopotamia. "Major Newmarch, the Political Resident in Turkish Arabia, and British Consul-General at Baghdad, has just transmitted to the Foreign Office a special dispatch containing many particulars of interest on the liquorice-growing industry in Mesopotamia. The plant is commercially grown wild throughout the country especially on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. About 5,000 Arabs are at the present time engaged in digging liquorice root. The root, on being brought to the receiving station, is weighed, and dried, and is then forwarded to Basra, southern Iraq, to be pressed into bales for export in the Makina station (in today's Al-Hakemeia neighbourhood in Ashar where until today the street there is known as Makina Street! About 10,000 tons are annually exported from Basra at the average value being £5 per ton. The industry appears to be largely controlled by Americans. In addition to its medicinal use liquorice is now a good deal employed in sweetening and in manufactured tobacco." (See BMJ. 11 Feb 1905; page 314.)
During the WWI, the British forces took control of the liquorice industry and augmented the exports from Basra to England. From 1900 to the outbreak of the Second World War, weekly liquorice production increased from about 40 tons to approximately 400 tons. The Makina was extended, and a special railway was established to carry the raw material to the Makina and the bales from Makina to Basra Port pavements at Margil to export to England (see photo.)
The numbers of workers in England also increased dramatically in parallel with this huge output. At maximum production, there were more than 7,000 women and about 2,000 men in the factories of 'Liquorice Town' of Pontefract, producing everything from sweets, Pontefract cakes, Catherine wheels and Spanish sticks to many other mixtures, including flavoured tea.
Ghanim Alsheikh, MD, PhD (Lond), FFPH-RCP. Professor Alsheikh is a specialist in Neurosciences, Public Health and Medical Education. He was the founding dean of two medical schools in Iraq and Yemen (1988-2000) and served as WHO regional coordinator for the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Educated in Iraq and the UK, he currently holds an honorary post at Imperial College London WHO Collaborating Centre and lives in Brighton, East Sussex.
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The second and perhaps even more important development was the introduction of steam power to enable 'punching' and 'stamping' machines to be developed. This allowed the mass production of squares and roundels, the basis of the "Allsorts and Pontefract Cakes of today." From this period onwards, development was explosive. Factories sprang up all over the area. Initially the liquorice produced in the local fields in and around Pontefract, was sufficient to supply the growing local industry, but after several disappointing summer seasons, the local supply proved to be insufficient and untrustworthy. In 1905, the good news on a new source of reliable supply came from the "British Medical Journal" reporting from Baghdad, on the cultivation of Liquorice in Mesopotamia. "Major Newmarch, the Political Resident in Turkish Arabia, and British Consul-General at Baghdad, has just transmitted to the Foreign Office a special dispatch containing many particulars of interest on the liquorice-growing industry in Mesopotamia. The plant is commercially grown wild throughout the country especially on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. About 5,000 Arabs are at the present time engaged in digging liquorice root. The root, on being brought to the receiving station, is weighed, and dried, and is then forwarded to Basra, southern Iraq, to be pressed into bales for export in the Makina station (in today's Al-Hakemeia neighbourhood in Ashar where until today the street there is known as Makina Street! About 10,000 tons are annually exported from Basra at the average value being £5 per ton. The industry appears to be largely controlled by Americans. In addition to its medicinal use liquorice is now a good deal employed in sweetening and in manufactured tobacco." (See BMJ. 11 Feb 1905; page 314.)
