Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/423

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION. 407 deaths are owe in twenty-two, equal to that of the most unhealthy towns of Europe ; so that the stock must be kept up by annual importations. The conditions of the landed tenures of the proprietors, or park-keepers, as they are with more propriety termed, were, that they should deliver their pro- duce to the government, and to government only, 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, OM. per pound avoirdupois, or Spanish dollars —^ per picul ; and for^mace, 04 d. per pound ; 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 3,^d. per pound, or Spanish dollars 9nnj P^'' picul j and of mace 9|d. 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, in their