Ill 
NUTMEGS AND MACE 
143 
PRICES 
Warburg, in Die Muskatnuss, gives a series of 
very interesting tables showing the prices of nutmeg 
and mace in different countries from the earliest times 
of which there is any record. 
In England a pound of nutmegs cost in 1310, 3s., and 
mace as much as 7s., and the spices kept about this price 
till 1623. When the Dutch monopolised the spice 
trade, nutmegs cost in England from 9s. to 19s. (in 
1805) and mace from 30s. to 90s. in 1806. With the 
breaking down of the Dutch monopoly they fell from 
5s. a pound for nutmegs and 8s. for mace in 1805 to 
from 9s. to Is. 3fd. for nutmegs, and Is. 4d. for mace 
in 1865. In 1874 and 1875 nutmegs fetched 2s. 8d. to 
2s. 6d. a pound, but has been steadily declining ever 
since, except for a few large fluctuations. The average 
price of nutmegs now is about half what it was in 1898, 
or rather less. Thus 80s. limed are quoted at 6|d. and 
110s. limed at 4|d. in 1909 ; mace Is. 8d. to 2s. 4d. a 
pound, Penang mace being rather higher than Java. 
This fall in price cannot be entirely due to over- 
production, as the exports from the Dutch East Indies 
show no great increase for that period. These are as 
follows : — • 
1898- 1899 . 1889-772 kilos 
1899- 1900 . 2670-431 „ 
1900- 1901 . 2861-518 „ 
1901- 1902 . 2391-072 „ 
1902- 1903 
1903- 1904 
1904- 1905 
1905- 1906 
2840-304 kilos 
2686-399 „ 
3389-804 „ 
2793-090 „ 
The Dutch East Indies are the principal producers 
of the spice, and there has not been any great increase 
in output in Penang (which, indeed, is rather declining) 
to account for the fall in price. It is suggested that 
the fall in value is due to a smaller demand consequent 
on a decreased consumption per capita} 
There is, I think, a tendency in Europe to use less 
spice for flavouring in everything in the way of 
^ Spice-Mill, 1908, p. 749, from the IndiscTie Mercuur, quoted in Agricultural 
News, 1910. 
