412 



SPICES AND EEAaEAl^T WOODS. 



with the nutmeg, on which were 10,500 bearing trees, 8,095 male 

 trees, and 7,307 not jet bearing, making in all 25,902 trees planted 

 out. The produce was in 1842, 1,963,619 good nuts, 18,842 

 inferior ditto, and 4,500 lbs. of mace. The ralue of the produce 

 of nutmegs was 9,867 dollars. The estimated number of nuts in 

 1843 was 1,980,000 ; in 1844, 2,958,000. There were in aU 423 

 nutmeg plantations on the island and main land. 



There were annually exported in the four years ending 1850, 

 48,000 lbs. of nutmegs from Pinang, and 57,400 lbs. of mace. 



The French at an early period cultivated the nutmeg at the 

 Mauritius, and from thence they carried it to Cayenne. In 

 Sumatra it appears to have been grown successfully, and according 

 to Sir S. Eafiies, there was in 1819 a plantation at Bencoolen of 

 100,000 nutmeg trees, one-fourth of which were bearing. At- 

 tempts have been made in Trinidad and St. Vincent to carry out 

 the culture, but for want of enterprise very little progress seems 

 to have been made in the matter. 



Under the new duties which came into operation this year, 

 nutmegs, instead of standing at Is. per pound all round, have been 

 classified, and the so-called "wild" nutmegs of the Dutch islands 

 are to pay only 5d per pound. This deprives the Straits' produce 

 of its last protection against that of the Banda plantations, where 

 the tree grows spontaneously, v^^hile it gives the long Dutch nut 

 a high protection. If an alteration in this suicidal measure is not 

 speedily obtained, the Straits' planters will be ruined. The 

 Dutch have the power of inundating the market with the long 

 aromatic nut. If the original plan of putting all British and all 

 foreign nutmegs on the same footing had been adhered to, the 

 Strail:s' planters would not have complained, as they would have 

 trusted to their superior skill and care to compensate for the 

 grand advantage the Dutch have in their rich soils. 



On observing this alteration of duty, Mr. Crawfurd and Mr. 

 Grilman immediately prepared the following memorandum for the 

 Chancellor of the'Exchequer, v/hich however failed to influence 

 that Minister : — 



" ]\rE3I0IlAJfDITM ON THE DUTIES ON NUTMEGS. 



" The duty proposed to be levied on nutmegs is 1 s. per pound for cultivated, and 

 5d. per pound for those commonly called wild. The ground on which this dis- 

 tinction is founded, is said to be that the market value of the one is but half 

 that of the other, and that the Customs can readily distinguish between them. 



Now it is admitted, on all sides, that there is but one species of culinary 

 nutmeg, the MyriMica Moschata of botanists, although at least a score of the 

 same genus, all unfit for human food. The parent country of the aromatic 

 nutmegs extends from the Molucca Islands to New Gruinea, inclusive. In this 

 they grow with facility, and even in the Banda Islands, where there are parks 

 of them, they hardly undergo any cultivation, and may truly be said, even 

 there, to be a wild product. It is only when grown as exotics, as in the 

 British settlements of Pinang and Singapore, that they require cultivation, and 

 that a more careful and expensive one than any other produce of the soil. 



Aromatic nutmegs are sometimes large and sometimes small — sometimes 

 round, sometimes oblong, and sometimes long, and this will be found the case 

 whether cultivated or uncultivated. How, then, the Customs are able to 

 distinguish them it is difficult to understand. In the ordinary Prices Current 



