Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/407

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION. SQl or 2,376,000 lb. avoirdupois. He adds a most iiir structive and important fact, that, when the trade was free, the quantity produced was increased to one-half more, or 6OOO bahars, making 3,564,000 lbs. In the year 1631, the quantity yielded by Amboyna was greatly reduced by the depredations of the Dutch, and what was delivered to them was only 1300 bahars, or lbs. avoirdupois 772,497. A great deal more, however, was actually produced, for the natives were naturally disinclined to supply the Dutch, and sold what they could to other strangers. The whole produce at present does not, it is believed, average above 700,000 lbs. The average consumed yearly in Europe, in the period before the Spice Islands fell into the hands of the English, was about 553,000 lbs. During the last British possession of the Moluccas, the average consumption of Europe, on an estimate of five years, from 1814 to 1818, was 365,000 lbs. Of this Great Britain consumed annually 78,000 lbs., of which 7^,000 lbs. were the produce of Cayenne. The duty on Molucca cloves during this time in England was no less than 5s. 72d. the lb., more than twenty fold the price of the com- modity where it grows, and making, with the price, the real cost to the consumer thirty«four times that price ! The facts brought forward in these statements are amply sufficient to point out the true causes of