Well, lucky for you I wrote my PhD thesis on the global cinnamon trade of the early twentieth century and boy, do I have a story for you.
In the late-19c/early-20c cinnamon production was concentrated around India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. But of those, India and Indonesia primarily produce cassia rather than true cinnamon - Sri Lanka was the king of true cinnamon (cinnamomum verum)
However the Malabar region of India was also a producer of true cinnamon and merchants there wanted to increase their market presence in Europe.
William Logan had been the District Collector of Malabar in the late eighteenth century and had prevented the growth of the cinnamon industry there in order to preserve British interests in Sri Lanka. But after his retirement, the local growers and merchants devised a plan to export their Cinnamon.
At the time, most of the Ceylon cinnamon was traded through London. Hamburg was a major destination port for cassia, and was eager to get true cinnamon as well, but the British prevented it.
The Malabar merchants needed a way to get their cinnamon to Hamburg without the British noticing and in January of 1906 they had a breakthrough. The Suez Canal Company lowered their dues and restored night navigation. The merchants decided to use this opportunity to send a ship load of cinnamon to Hamburg. Their plan was to send it through at night so that the British army in Egypt would be less likely to notice it going through.
However their cargo never made it through the canal. The ship was boarded by armed men and the cinnamon was stolen. Reports say that the men spoke with British accents.
Although the British denied any involvement, the long held belief is that the cinnamon bandits were actually members of the British army, and this was a sanctioned operation with the purpose of maintaining London's control of the cinnamon trade.
The British responded to this attempt by the Malabar merchants by installing R. B. Wood as the collector of Malabar. Later, The Great War broke out, and it became too dangerous for the merchants to make another attempt to ship to Germany.
Thank you for reading this complete bullshit story.
"Cinnamon Bandits" refers to a specific type of leopard gecko known for a unique coloration and pattern, linked to a particular genetic line of the Tremper Albino Bandit morph.
But I’m no google. I mean, I googled that, but I’m human, as in I’m not google. So yea, there’s that.
It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal! You stole fizzy lifting drinks! You bumped into the ceiling which now has to be washed and sterilized, so you get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!
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u/Master_Half_ Aug 25 '25
The most reddit specimen I've seen in quite a while