In 1882 Swiss doctor Fridolin Schuler warned that factory workers were malnourished, since women had little time to cook and cheap canteen meals lacked nutrition. Julius Maggi, who ran his father's mill, spent two years developing quick-cooking flour from protein-rich legumes. Sold from 1884, it was the first legume meal of its kind on the market. In 1886 the company made an acid-hydrolysed vegetable protein seasoning, which combined with legume meals to make ready-made soup and competed with Justus von Liebig's meat extract. The bouillon cube followed in 1908.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.