price in Europe ought not to exceed 6d. a pound,
but it has very generally been twelve times as
much, and in England, including duties, seventeen
times as much. The consumer pays this price* we
need not scruple to say, for no other purpose than
that a political juggle may be played, by which the
party who plays it imposes upon itself, without
gaining any earthly advantage, while the grower is
cheated out of his property and out of his liberty.
The same quantity of labour producing four
times as much of nutmegs as mace, the natural price
of the mace ought to be four times the price of the
nutmegs. The market price, of course, occasionally
varied from this, but, in general, we find an
approximation to it. In the first Dutch voyage,
nutmegs appear to have been at a wonderfully low
rate, and to have cost no more than one-sixth part
of the price of mace. Linschoten’s prices at Sunda
Calapa in 1583, I imagine, are more to be relied
on, and here the mace is described as costing very
nearly three times as much as nutmegs; but in this
estimate we are to reckon in the nutmeg the cost
of transporting, 381 per cent, of useless shells,
which may be considered as the tare of the article.
At the markets on the Caspian* the relative prices
approximated still more from the same cause; and
here we find the mace valued at no more than 80
per cent, above the price of the nutmeg.
In order thoroughly to comprehend the nature
and history of this branch of the spice trade, a review
of the prices of the nutmeg and mace in Europe,
in different periods of the trade, will be necessary.
The ancient price of nutmegs in England,
before the discovery of the route by the Cape of
Good Hope, was 133} Spanish dollars per picul,
or 4s. 6d. per pound, and of mace 266} Spanish
dollars per picul, or 9s. per pound. The price of
nutmegs in England two centuries ago was 74fo~o
Spanish dollars per picul, or 2s. 6d. per pound, and
of mace l f e ^ Spanish dollars per picul, or 6s. per
pound. The prices in Holland, when the Dutch
were in full possession of the monopoly, was for
nutmegs 805 Spanish dollars per picul, or 10s. 3}d.
per pound, and for mace 903 Spanish dollars per
picul, or L. 1, 10s. 5fd. per pound. It is no wonder
that such enormous charges should diminish
the consumption. During the years 1808, 1804,
and 1805, nutmegs sold in England for 309 Spanish
dollars per picul, or 10s. 5}d. per pound. At
present the price, exclusive of duties, is 5s. per
pound for nutmegs, and 8s. per pound for mace, or
including duties, 7 s* 6d. for the one, and 11s. 6d.
for the other.
The alleged consumption of Europe in the different
periods of the trade is next to be considered.
In the year 1615, the consumption of England
in nutmegs was reckoned at 100,000 lbs., and
of mace 15,000 lbs. Two centuries ago, Mr