158 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



wliicli was tliree hundred and sixty times tlieir origi- 

 nal price. It was to make this immense profit that the 

 Portuguese, the Spaniards, the Dutch, and the Eng- 

 lish, were all so anxious to find a passage to the East 

 by sea, and why, when these islands had been discov- 

 ered, each strove to monopolize the trade itself, and all 

 carried on such a persistent and piratical warfare for 

 many years. So long as cloves were not cultivated 

 elsewhere, and there was no competition in the Euro- 

 pean markets, the Dutch Government made a hand- 

 some profit by means of its monopoly ; but when 

 they were raised in other places, the consumption of 

 such a luxury not increasing with the supply, the 

 previous high price began at once to decline, and for 

 many years the income of the government in these 

 islands has not been equal to its expenses in the 

 same region. Some have supposed that a further 

 reduction in the price would be followed with a cor- 

 responding greater demand, until its consumption 

 would become as general and as large as that of pep- 

 per ; but this view is opposed by the common de- 

 cision of mankind — that pepper is a necessary article 

 of food, and that the clove is only a luxury. If no 

 attempt had been made to keep up the price of this 

 commodity to such a high figure in the European 

 markets, there would have been a less incentive to 

 other nations to introduce it into their own colonies, 

 and thus the market would not have been over- 

 stocked so soon, and the j^rice would not have fallen 

 so low as to make the Spice Islands a source of loss 

 instead of profit, except within a recent date. 



All the rajahs I met were strict Mohammedans, 



