Nutmegs and mace were imported from India at an early date by the Arabians, and thus passed into western countries. Aëtius, who was resident at the court of Constantinople about the year 540, appears to have been acquainted with the nutmeg, if that at least is intended by the term Nuces Indicæ, prescribed together with cloves, spikenard, costus, calamus aromaticus and snadal-wood, as an ingredient of the Suffumigium moschatum.[1853]
Masudi,[1854] who appears to have visited India in a.d. 916-920, pointed out that the nutmeg, like cloves, areca nut and snadal-wood, was a product of the eastern islands of the Indian Archipelago. The Arabian geographer Edrisi, who wrote in the middle of the 12th century, mentions both nutmegs and mace as articles of import into Aden;[1855] and again “Nois mouscades” are among the spices on which duty was levied at Acre in Palestine, circa a.d. 1180.[1856] About a century later, another Arabian author, Kazwini,[1857] expressly named the Moluccas as the native country of the spices under notice.
The Sanskrit name of the nutmeg tree most commonly in use, also with Susruta, is Jātī (Dr. Rice).
One of the earliest references to the use of nutmegs in Europe occurs in a poem written about 1195, by Petrus D’Ebulo,[1858] describing the entry into Rome of the Emperor Henry VI., prior to his coronation in April 1191. On this occasion the streets were fumigated with aromatics, which are enumerated in the following line:—
“Balsama, thus, aloë, myristica, cynnama, nardus.”
By the end of the 12th century, both nutmegs and mace were found in Northern Europe,—even in Denmark, as may be inferred from the allusion to them in the writings of Harpestreng.[1859] In England, mace, though well known, was a very costly spice, its value between a.d. 1284 and 1377 being about 4s. 7d. per lb., while the average price of a sheep during the same period was but 1s. 5d., and of a cow 9s. 5d.[1860] It was also dear in France, for in the Compte de l’exécution of the will of Jeanne d’Evreux, queen of France, in 1372, six ounces of mace are appraised per ounce at 3 sols 8 deniers, equal to about 8s. 3d. of our present money.[1861]
The use of these spices was diffused throughout Europe long before the Portuguese in 1512 had discovered the mother plant in the isles of Banda. The Portuguese held the trade of the Spice Islands for about a century, when it was wrested from them by the Dutch, who pursued the same policy of exclusiveness that they had followed in the case of cloves and cinnamon. In order to secure their monopoly, they endeavoured to limit the trees to Banda and Amboyna, and to exterminate them elsewhere, which in fact they did at Ceram and the small neighbouring islands of Kelang and Nila. So completely was the spice trade in their hands, that the crops of sixteen years were said to be at one time in their warehouses, those of recent years being never thrown on the market. Thus the crop of 1744 was being sold in 1760, in which year an immense quantity of nutmegs and cloves was burned at Amsterdam lest the price should fall too low.[1862]
During the occupation of the Spice Islands by the English from 1796 to 1802, the culture of the nutmeg was introduced into Bencoolen and Penang,[1863] and many years afterwards into Singapore. Extensive plantations of nutmeg-trees were formed in the two islands last named, and by a laborious and costly system of cultivation were for many years highly productive.[1864] In 1860 the trees were visited by a destructive blight, which the cultivators were powerless to arrest, and which ultimately led to the ruin of the plantations, so that in 1867 there was no such thing as nutmeg cultivation either in Penang or Singapore.[1865]
Though so long valued in Europe and Asia, neither nutmegs nor mace seem to have been employed in former times as a condiment in the islands where they are indigenous.[1866]
Collection and Preparation—Almost the whole surface of the Banda Isles, observes Mr. Wallace,[1867] is planted with nutmeg-trees, which thrive under the shade of the lofty Canarium 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.