![]() ![]() They came together to exploit the spices market and, almost inadvertently, changed the world. Europeans craved the stuff nutmeg street values, reminiscent of those commanded by certain forbidden substances today, led a group of English speculators, in 1600, to form themselves into “The Company of Merchants of London Trading Into the East Indies.” In Europe it retailed for 1.60-a profit of 32,000%. On Pulo Run 10 pounds of nutmeg cost half a penny. What excited the Brits were a few acres of nutmeg gardens. (They were dispatched but, fortunately for them, never got there). Send a shipload of good Presbyterian settlers, he commanded, with chickens and goats it must be ours for eternity. Even the pragmatic eye of Cromwell took on a feverish glitter when it was mentioned. Its name, Pulo Run, sounds like a consequence of having eaten bad curries, yet it once carried such resonance that James I chose to style himself “King of England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Puloroon” (Pulo Run). The seed from which the British Empire sprang was an obscure, tiny, wretchedly malarial island lying at the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago. ![]()
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