that of the round nutmeg, may be had in the markets
of the eastern parts of the Archipelago for
four Spanish dollars, or 15s. lid. per cwt.; and
further to the west, as at Bali, at five Spanish dollars,
or 18s. lOfd. per cwt. Freed from the shell,
this is, for the first, Spanish dollars the picul,
or 20s. 1 l^d. per cwt. j and dor the second, 6^ ^
Spanish dollars per picul, or 26s. 2fd. per cwt°.
There is a striking accordance between these prices
and those paid when the trade was free, if we advert
that the former is enhanced by the charges
incident to the risk of smuggling, and receive a
bounty from the exorbitant cost of the monopoly
product. In the first Dutch voyage, when the
Hollanders competed with the Portuguese, the
Chinese, and the native traders of the western portion
of the Archipelago, they paid no more for
their nutmegs than lffjf Spanish dollar per picul,
or 4s. 6d. per cwt., which makes the cost of the
clean nutmegs 1^ ’ Spanish dollar per picul, or
7 s. 3^d. per cwt. At Sunda Calapa, the modern
, e nutmegs were brought by the Javanese
for the convenience of the Arabs, the Hindus,
and Mahomedans of Western India, 'Lin-
schoten tells us, that the cost of nutmegs in the
shell was no more, at an average, than 2^ - Spanish
dollars per picul, or l^d. per lb., or 10s. lOfd.
per cwt., which reduces the clean nutmeg, exclusive
of the petty charge of husking them, to no
4
more than 4 /^ Spanish dollars per picul, lfd. per
lb., or 17s. 6d. per cwt. As an argument in favour
of the monopoly, it has been sometimes asserted,
although not much insisted upon, that its
care and vigilance are necessary towards supplying
the consumer with good spices. That there is as
little meaning as possible in such an assertion may
readily enough be shewn. There was the greatest
comparative consumption of spices when the monopolists
had nothing at all to do with them ; and,
as far as nutmegs are concerned, those nutmegs
must surely have been well enough cured which
could withstand, in a rude period of navigation,
many careless sea voyages, long land journeys, and
all the alternations of heat and cold to which
they were necessarily subjected. Were nutmegs,
as at present preserved, submitted to the same trials,
but a small portion of them indeed would reach
the distant market of Europe.
In treating of the clove, I have endeavoured. to
ascertain its natural price, and fixed it at about
six Spanish dollars per picul, or 2|d. per pound ;
or, stored for export, eight Spanish dollars per picul,
or 3|d. per pound. The natural price of the *
nutmeg is much lower; and from the data already
adduced we may conclude, that, in a state of free
trade, it ought not to exceed four Spanish dollars
per picul; or, ready for exportation, six Spanish
dollars per picul, or 2 'd. per pound. The true