THE STATISTICS OP NUTMEGS. 
V 
cultivators or merchants could not afford to hold back and regulate the 
quantity like the Government, a very serious fall would inevitably result, 
which would no doubt be permanent and steady, because, as regards 
nutmegs, it may be salely stated that the supply already exceeds the demand 
and that any increase in the supply can only be got off by submitting to a 
reduction in price. That we may not be suspected of exaggerating in regard 
to the Moluccan plantations, we refer the reader to Count Hogendorp’s account 
of them, and of the wretched management to which they were subjected at 
the time when he wrote, and which prevails at the present moment/* Throw¬ 
ing them open to private enterprise could not but have the effect of improving 
and probably extending the cultivation to a laree extent, and of course 
causing a very large increase in the production. The Dutch Government at 
present derive little or no profit from the monopoly, so that it is very likely 
it will be soon abolished in compliance with the demand which is now 
male in Holland, as well as in the Colonies, for a more liberal system of 
trade, and there is no doubt that the giving it up would be a popular measure. 
Already the influence of free trade has penetrated into that so long jealously 
guarded region, and the making Men ado and Kima, which are under the 
Molucca Government, free ports, may only be the prelude to opening the 
spice islands themselves to the general trade, a measure which of course 
would entail along with it the necessity of abolishing the monopoly of spices. 
It may appear that we have written rather discouragingly regarding nutmeg 
planting, and that the picture we have drawn of it is as much too sombre, 
as that of Dr Oxley was t o bright and glowing. We have, however only 
given such facts and information as we could collect and from these we 
leave others to draw their own conclusions, ft is probable that persons who 
have plantations already at maturity, or who, having capital, can afford to 
form their plantations with rapidity and by high culture force the production, 
may still for a considerable time to come find nutmeg cultivation a source 
of profit, hut to those who embark in it with but limited means, and can 
only extend their cultivation by gradual and slow degrees, it will certainly, 
in our opinion, prove a hazardous speculation, and one which prudence would 
seem to counsel them to avoid. Above all, to those who, like ihe Chinese 
in their nutmeg planting in general, cultivate impeifectly and therefore to a 
certain extent with less profit, it must in the long run leave anything but a 
satisfactory result. 
* See post, p. vnr. 
i 
