STORY BEHIND "SPICE TRADERS"

This will explain why we are fans of the Spice Traders Essential Oils for pandemic preparedness. Cool story!

There are many versions of the story of the Spice Traders/Thieves Essential Oil Blend. There was a plague in the 1400’s and then again in the 1700’s. There were strories written then about thieves and spice traders. Here are a couple of those stories.
• As the bubonic plague decimated Europe in the year 1413, four thieves were captured and charged with robbing the dead and dying victims. When the thieves were tried, the magistrate offered leniency if they would reveal how they resisted contracting the infection as they performed their gruesome acts. They explained that they were perfumers and spice traders and told of a special concoction of aromatic herbs, including cloves and rosemary, that they rubbed on their hands, ears, and temples http://www.secretofthieves.com
• The thieves happen to have been merchants and spice traders, and that’s how they knew about the oils because they were importing cinnamon and clove from India and when the plague hit, the kings of the various countries sent out a mandate closing down inter-national commerce and shipping. So all of the ships were docked and they couldn’t sell and they couldn’t engage in their business and they were going broke. The spice trade was a very lucrative trade and they made money at it, so they decided, “Well–all of these people are dying and they are afraid to touch them. We might as well go loot their bodies and take the things off and go into the homes where everybody is dead and take the things out of the homes, like pots and pans and jewelry and clothing and set up a pawn shop trade…” that’s when pawn shops evolved. Of course, you have heard the story when the king issued the proclamation to have the thieves captured, but the constables were afraid to touch them because they knew they had been touching the dead bodies and going in the homes of the dead people, and they didn’t want the plague. It became so severe that the king even executed a few of the constables that refused. Finally, it was a life or death issue, and as the story
goes on there were four of them who were caught. The king gave them an opportunity to confess the secret of their immunity, either with the choice of
burning at the stake or being hung by the neck, meaning if they didn’t give up their secret they would be burned at the stake, and worse if they gave
up their secret they would be hung by the neck–and they chose hanging. They gave up their secret and it was published and plastered all through the town. http://inspiredpurpose.wordpress.com/2007/05/02/the-story-behind-thieves-oil

Oils Used in the Stories
The oils in the different versions of the stories list different oils that were used. No one really knows for sure which oils were actually used, but we know that they were spiced oils. We know that Oregano,Cinna-mon,and Clove were oils that were traded at that time and because of the power of Cinnamon and Clove they were most likely two of the oils of choice.