I just missed the part on Saffron.

One of the spices that received attention was Vanilla, particularly
Mexican Vanilla where the spice originated. I grew no where else.
And could grow no where else until artificial pollination was
invented.
(hand pollination)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla
{
Vanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla,
primarily from the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (V.
planifolia). The word vanilla, derived from the diminutive of the
Spanish word vaina (vaina itself meaning sheath or pod), simply
translates as little pod.[1] Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican peoples
cultivated the vine of the vanilla orchid, called tlilxochitl by the
Aztecs, and Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés is credited with
introducing both vanilla and chocolate to Europe in the 1520s.[2]

Initial attempts to cultivate vanilla outside Mexico and Central
America proved futile because of the symbiotic relationship between
the vanilla orchid and its natural pollinator, the local species of
Melipona bee. Pollination is required to set the fruit from which the
flavoring is derived. In 1837, Belgian botanist Charles François
Antoine Morren discovered this fact and pioneered a method of
artificially pollinating the plant. The method proved financially
unworkable and was not deployed commercially.[3] In 1841, Edmond
Albius, a 12-year-old slave who lived on the French island of Réunion
in the Indian Ocean, discovered the plant could be hand-pollinated.
Hand-pollination allowed global cultivation of the plant.[4]

Three major cultivars of vanilla currently are grown globally, all of
which derive from a species originally found in Mesoamerica, including
parts of modern-day Mexico.[5] The various subspecies are Vanilla
planifolia (syn. V. fragrans), grown on Madagascar, Réunion, and other
tropical areas along the Indian Ocean; V. tahitensis, grown in the
South Pacific; and V. pompona, found in the West Indies, and Central
and South America.[6] The majority of the world's vanilla is the V.
planifolia variety, more commonly known as Bourbon vanilla (after the
former name of Réunion, Île Bourbon) or Madagascar vanilla, which is
produced in Madagascar and neighboring islands in the southwestern
Indian Ocean, and in Indonesia.[7][8] Leptotes bicolor is used in the
same way in South America.

Vanilla is the second most expensive spice after saffron,[9][10]
because growing the vanilla seed pods is labor-intensive.[10] Despite
the expense, vanilla is highly valued for its flavor, which author
Frederic Rosengarten, Jr. described in The Book of Spices as "pure,
spicy, and delicate" and its complex floral aroma depicted as a
"peculiar bouquet".[11] As a result, vanilla is widely used in both
commercial and domestic baking, perfume manufacture and aromatherapy.
}