Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/411

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION. 395 commerce, is less simple, or of a more complex character than that of its sister tree ; and as this circumstance is intimately connected with its com- mercial history, and with any inquiry into its re- lative price with other commodities, some analysis of it will be necessary. The dried produce of a nutmeg tree consists of nutmeg, mace, and shell. In 15 parts of the whole produce there are 2 parts of mace, 5 of shell, and 8 of nutmegs ; or in 100, 13^ of mace, o-Si of shell, and 531 of nut- megs. The proportion which the shell bears to the nutmeg, which it envelopes, is as 5 is to 8, which is 38 J per cent, of shell, and 61 j of nut- megs. The proportion which the mace bears to the nutmeg is as 1 is to 4. In the ancient commerce, and down to the establishment of the Dutch monopoly, nutmegs were always sold and transported in the shell, and the natives, when the commerce is left to their management, continue this practice. AVhen, therefore, we hear that in the early period of modern European intercourse, a picul of nutmegs cost only 6ioo Spanish dollars, we must understand it of nutmegs in the shell, and the clean nutmeg would be, independent of the labour of freeing the nuts from the shell, 9 Jro Spanish dollars. It seems to have been one of the recourses of the Dutch monopoly, with the view of securing the more effectually an entire mo- nopoly of the nutmeg trade, to free the nuts from