with nutmegs, grown under the shade of lofty Kanary trees (Kanarium
commune). The light volcanic soil, the shade, and the excessive moisture
of these islands, where it rains more or less every month in the year,
seem exactly to suit the nutmeg-tree, which requires no manure and
scarcely any attention. All the year round flowers and ripe fruit are
to be found, and none of those diseases occur which under a forced
and unnatural system of cultivation have ruined the nutmeg planters of
Singapore and Penang.
Few cultivated plants are more beautiful than nutmeg-trees. They are
handsomely shaped and glossy-leaved, growing to the height of twenty or
thirty feet, and bearing small yellowish flowers. The fruit is the
size and colour of a peach, but rather oval. It is of a tough fleshy
consistence, but when ripe splits open, and shows the dark-brown nut
within, covered with the crimson mace, and is then a most beautiful
object. Within the thin, hard shell of the nut is the seed, which is the
nutmeg of commerce. The nuts are eaten by the large pigeons of Banda,
which digest the mace, but cast up the nut with its seed uninjured.
The nutmeg trade has hitherto been a strict monopoly of the Dutch
Government; but since leaving the country I believe that this monopoly
has been partially or wholly discontinued, a proceeding which appears
exceedingly injudicious and quite unnecessary. There are cases in which
monopolies are perfectly justifiable, and I believe this to be one of
them. A small country like Holland cannot afford to keep distant and
expensive colonies at a loss; and having possession of a very small
island where a valuable product, not a necessity of life, can be
obtained at little cost, it is almost the duty of the state to
monopolise it. No injury is done thereby to anyone, but a great benefit
is conferred upon the whole population of Holland and its dependencies,
since the produce of the state monopolies saves them from the weight of
a heavy taxation. Had the Government not kept the nutmeg trade of Banda
in its own hands, it is probable that the whole of the islands would
long ago have become the property of one or more large capitalists. The
monopoly would have been almost the same, since no known spot on the
globe can produce nutmegs so cheaply as Banda, but the profits of the
monopoly would have gone to a few individuals instead of to the nation.
As an illustration of how a state monopoly may become a state duty, let
us suppose that no gold existed in Australia, but that it had been
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