By Giles Milton
A history of the English and Dutch East Indian Companies regarding the Spice Islands. Once home to the world's only source of nutmeg, mace and cloves.
Quite a violent tale. I found this book quite engaging, fascinating and quite the page turner. With the numerous names mentioned and the long time frame, 100ish years, it was a little bit difficult keeping track of everyone. My main beef with the book is the title. For a 375 page book, Nathaniel doesn't make his debut until about page 200. His story is sprinkled into the next 100 pages and then he is killed. It makes you wonder why his name is attached to the title. Milton tries to show how his actions eventually lead to the island of Run (England's foothold in the Banda island archipelago) being traded for Manhattan island with the Dutch. I found this a bit thin, but point made.
The book gave great insight into where the aromatic little jars you pick up in the spice aisle originally came from and the hardships people went through to bring these spices back to Europe. Amazingly in the beginning the English lost most of the men and ships they sent to Asia, yet were still extraordinarily profitable due to the 10x inflation in price of the spices paid at their source compared to being sold in Europe.
The story really made me wonder about where more of our spices originate from. The book didn't really go into much detail about how the fruits were harvested. There is an epilogue which tell how the island fairs some 400 years after the tale told in the book. Hint: not very well as the British were eventually able to get nutmeg and clove plants off of the islands and transport them to Singapore, Ceylon and other countries. I found it funny that the current residents of Run weren't that impressed by pictures of Manhattan island.
Here is a view from one of the Banda Islands to give you an idea of what they look like.
