Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/415

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION. 399 existing prices. In the first periods of our com- merce, the average price of the nutmeg to the clove was as 100 is to 290, or 63'^ per cent cheaper. At present the case is reversed, and the relative prices areas 100 is to 47, or 113 per cent, dearer. This factitious and unnatural price, however, is far from being, as will be presently seen, altoge- ther attributable to the blunder made in curing the nutmegs, but is in a great measure also owing to a rigour of monopoly, and a restricted production in culture and trade in the nutmegs grown by the hands of a few slaves, which could not be carried to so pernicious an extent with the clove, cultivated by the numerous and comparatively free popula- tion of Amboyna. The intelligence, which is en- gendered by free commerce, would render such observations as these superfluous ; but it belongs to the imbecility which is the inseparable character of commercial monopoly, to require a perpetual tu- toring and direction even towards accomplishing its own narrow objects. The mace requires no such preparation as the nutmeg, simple exsiccation in the sun rendering it at once fit for the market. The natural price of rearing nutmegs, and bring- ing them to market, in a state of free trade and cul- ture, may be ascertained without much difficulty. A picul of long nutmegs in the shell, the natural expence of growing which is exactly the same as