restoring the spice trade to its natural state. To
render this intelligible, it will be necessary to premise
a very short sketch of the culture and trade
in nutmegs, as conducted under the monopoly regulations,
and of the attempts made to extend thè
culture beyond the limits of the native country of
the nutmeg tree. The clove tree is cultivated by
the aboriginal inhabitants of Amboyna, but the
nutmeg by the hands of slaves, imported into the
Banda isles for this express purpose by the Dutch ^
The inhabitants of the little cluster of the Banda
islands made the earliest and most spirited resistance
to the establishment of the monopoly, but
being few in number, and their country open to
the military operations of the European power,
they were completely subjugated ; and, in the year
1620, it was the hard fate of the few who survived
the struggle to be expatriated.^ To keep up the
cultivation of the nutmeg plantations, the Dutch
made a sort of sale of them to invalided European
soldiers, and other adventurers of their own nation,
.whose descendants, an indolent, ignorant, idle, and
dissipated class of men, are the present possessors.
Under these persons are placed the slaves, about
2000 in number, who till the soil and cure the spices,
natives of some of the surrounding islands. The
number of children to a marriage among them is
no more than two, whereas, among the free population
of Amboyna, it is three ; and the annual
death? are one in twenty-two, equal to that of the
most unhealthy towns of Europe | so that the stock
must be kept up by annual importations. I e
conditions of the landed tenures of the proprietors,
or parUceepers, as they are with more propriety
termed, were, that they should deliver their produce
to the government, and to government oh y,
at certain fixed rates, and that the government
should supply them with slaves and necessaries at
stipulated prices, while these nominal proprietors
were liable to be dispossessed by the local authorities
of the government on the most trifling pretext, as for
neglect or disrespect, offences of which the accuser
was to be the sole judge ! The prices paid to the
cultivator for spices have varied from time to time.
The first prices established were—for nutmegs, Old.
per pound avoirdupois, or Spanish dollars ^ per
picul; and for mace, Of d. per pound j or Spanish
dollars 2 per picul. These wonderfully low prices
were soon found inadequate, and the government
were by necessity compelled, from time to time, to
raise them. The actual prices paid at present, on
the average of nutmegs of all qualities, is Sfd. per
pound, or Spanish dollars 9 ^ per picul; and of
mace 9fd. per pound, or Spanish dollars 24 per
picul. We have here another decided testimony
in proof of the pernicious effects of the monopoly.
The price now voluntarily paid is far greater than
the Dutch were compelled to pay when, m their