Nutmeg

Another crop that was first cultivated on the other side of the world from the places exporting most nowadays.

Nutmeg came from the island of Run, part of what they called the 'Spiceries' but which we call the Moluccas. Origianlly it was [rominent on any world map. Now it has almost disappeared.

Basically, the Portugese controlled this group pf islands for a century or so, then the Spaniards had a go at them, while Britain had a disastrous go at by passing them both by trying to go via 'the Arctic!' Two out of three vessels andtheir inhabitants froze to deatrh. the other ship ended up wit th Tsar int Russia who did something which began Molluca ..that led to East India Company.

In 17th and 18th centuries, back and forth between Netherlands and Britain. the nutmeg Plantations were subsequently worked by convicts and Sultanate slaves until their emancipation in l86O. The nutmeg monopoly, so established, was jealously guarded; the seeds for export being subjected to the process; of "liming" to prevent germination.

The French, hoped to crack this monopoly. In 1769 they authorised M.Poivre to organise a. clandestine expedition to the least frequented parts of the Moluccas. June,1770, they brought to Mauritius, 400 nutmeg trees; 10,000 nutmegs either growing or ready to grow; 70 clove trees and a chest of cloves. These were planted in all different available soils, but the Abbe Raynal observed the same year that "most of the young plants die, and the rest will not probably bear any fruit'. Similar trials in Cayenne seem to have been equally unsuccessful (Mauritius still subsists on a cane monoculture) However, in the second British interregnum, The British East Indian.Coy sent Mr C Smith to The Moluccas to collect nutmeg seed for planting in Penang Island, l796 where the cultivations flourished for many years. Other plantings were also attempted with varying success in Calcutta, Madras, Brazil, several West Indian Islands, (not Grenada) and of course Kew.

By 1812, the David Brown family was beginning to make nutmeg a major crop of Penang, encouraged no doubt by Thomas Stamford Raffles (I sthis related to the 'Raffles BAr?') 

who had. been sent there by the B.E.I.Coy in 1805. By 1818, Sir Stamford as Lt-Governor of Bencoolen, Sumatra, was supporting the cultivation of spices both there and, a year later, in Singapore, his political child, with a view to breaking the Dutch trade. By l824., nutmegs had become established in some West Indian Islands as one of the first trees to be planted in the Trinidad Botanic Gardens.There is no evidence that West Indian spices were yet of any economic importance.

A curious link between the West Indies and the East Indies now appears. The East Indies entered the sugar market on a large scale. But it was realised in 1836/38 that the system of sugar extraction was greatly inferior to that of the West. As a result West Indian overseers were called in as managers to introduce their system, an invasion,in the mainland Penang in 1840. These agriculturists, returning home on leave, or on retirement, would certainly have brought nutmeg seeds with them; for by 1850, European beet-sugar had begun to control the world sugar market. In fact, a "red light" had become visible and alternative crops were being sought.

From Run to Grenada

How has Nutmeg gone from Run to now being grown in Grenada?

FAO Nutmeg