7. Spices

The great market at Bantam

In the 1600s nutmeg was so valuable that sailors risked their lives to go and get it. Maybe this seems strange to you, especially if you know that nutmeg is poisonous if you eat too much.

In 1600 they didn't know that. Instead, nutmeg was thought to be an excellent medicine for all kinds of illnesses, including plague. It was also used to make perfumed oils. There are two parts to nutmeg, inside its fruit. There is the nutmeg itself and the casing on the outside, known as mace. Mace was the rarest of all spices and was even more expensive than nutmeg.

Before the time of the East India Company, nutmeg used to grow only on the Spice Islands, but after a time the seeds were taken to different places in the world and planted. Eventually it became less rare.

The picture shows the marketplace at Bantam, where spices and goods from all over Asia and Europe were traded, including pepper and nutmeg.