Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or, The True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed The Course Of History [Hardcover]

Giles Milton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 1999

A true tale of high adventure in the South Seas.

The tiny island of Run is an insignificant speck in the Indonesian archipelago. Just two miles long and half a mile wide, it is remote, tranquil, and, these days, largely ignored.

Yet 370 years ago, Run's harvest of nutmeg (a pound of which yielded a 3,200 percent profit by the time it arrived in England) turned it into the most lucrative of the Spice Islands, precipitating a battle between the all-powerful Dutch East India Company and the British Crown. The outcome of the fighting was one of the most spectacular deals in history: Britain ceded Run to Holland but in return was given Manhattan. This led not only to the birth of New York but also to the beginning of the British Empire.

Such a deal was due to the persistence of one man. Nathaniel Courthope and his small band of adventurers were sent to Run in October 1616, and for four years held off the massive Dutch navy. Nathaniel's Nutmeg centers on the remarkable showdown between Courthope and the Dutch Governor General Jan Coen, and the brutal fate of the mariners racing to Run-and the other corners of the globe-to reap the huge profits of the spice trade. Written with the flair of a historical sea novel but based on rigorous research, Nathaniel's Nutmeg is a brilliant adventure story by a writer who has been hailed as the "new Bruce Chatwin" (Mail on Sunday).

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Would you believe that nutmeg formed the basis of one of the most bitter international conflicts of the 17th century, and was also intimately connected to New York City's rise to global preeminence? Strange but true: nutmeg was, in fact, one of the most prized commodities in Renaissance Europe, and its fascinating story is told in Giles Milton's delightful Nathaniel's Nutmeg.

The book deals with the competition between England and Holland for possession of the spice-producing islands of Southeast Asia throughout the 17th century. Packed with stories of heroism, ambition, ruthlessness, treachery, murder, torture, and madness, Nathaniel's Nutmeg offers a compelling story of European rivalry in the tropics, thousands of miles from home, and the mutual incomprehensibility which often comically characterized relations between the Europeans and the local inhabitants of the prized islands.

At the center of the action lies Nathaniel Courthope, a trusty lieutenant of the East India Company, who took and held the tiny nutmeg-producing island of Run in the face of overwhelming Dutch opposition for more than five years, before being treacherously murdered in 1620. To avenge his death, and the loss of the island, the British took the Dutch North American colony at Manhattan. (As Milton wittily remarks, although Courthope's death "robbed England of her nutmeg, it gave her the biggest of apples").

Inevitably inviting comparisons with Dava Sobel's Longitude, Nathaniel's Nutmeg is a charming story that throws light on a neglected period of European history, and analyzes its fascination with the "spicy" East. --Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly

Exotic spices such as nutmeg, mace and cloves were treasured in the kitchens and pharmacopoeias of 16th- and 17th-century Europe. Nutmeg was even believed to be an effective remedy against plague. Small wonder, then, that traders of the time ventured to the ends of the earth to secure it. With high drama and gracefully integrated research, Milton (The Riddle and the Knight) chronicles this "Spice Race," profiling the leading participants and recording the ruthless violence with which this very real trade war was conducted. The maritime powers of Europe sent companies of adventurers to the Spice Islands (now part of Indonesia), each nation intent on establishing a monopoly and reaping the stupefying profits that the spice trade could produce. The book concentrates on the competition between the Dutch and English East India Companies to control the spice trade nearly 400 years ago. In 1616, Nathaniel Courthope led an English expedition to occupy the Spice Island of Run, a few square miles of land thickly forested with nutmeg trees. As Milton explains, Courthope's assertion of English ownership of Run Island was rejected by the Dutch, who besieged the island for four years before ousting the English (and killing Courthope). However, Courthope's apparent failure led to an unexpected benefit for his country when, in 1667, a treaty confirmed Holland's seizure of Run but, in exchange, validated England's seizure of another piece of land on the opposite side of the worldAthe island of Manhattan. Sprinkled with useful maps and illustrations, Milton's book tells an absorbing story of perilous voyages, greed and political machinations in the Age of Exploration.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First U. S. Edition edition (May 12, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374219362
• ISBN-13: 978-0374219369
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #216,303 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #17 in Books > History > Asia > Indonesia

More About the Author

www.gilesmilton.com

'The master of narrative history' - Sunday Times.

Giles Milton is an internationally best-selling author of narrative non-fiction.

His books include Nathaniel's Nutmeg - serialized by the BBC - and five other critically acclaimed works of history.

He has also written two novels and two books for young children.

He lives in London, UK, with his wife, the illustrator Alexandra Milton, and three daughters.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just A Nifty Title, September 25, 1999

By 

Bruce Loveitt (Ogdensburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or, The True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed The Course Of History (Hardcover)

Put on your windbreaker and get a firm grasp on both arms of your easychair and get ready for a great adventure! This book is that good. It flies along at breakneck speed with never a dull moment. Mr. Milton has a wonderful style and he has obviously done a tremendous amount of research in putting this book together. There are a lot of quotes from the primary sources, which makes for very interesting reading as you get a"you are there" feel. Actually, Nathaniel Courthope, from the title of the book is only a relatively small, though integral, part of the story. Mr. Milton gives brief but vivid character sketches of many of the Dutch and English sailors, merchants and explorers who were involved in this long and bloody trade war. Also, the book is not confined to just talking about the East Indies. It moves around from England, Holland, India, etc. to the Arctic and the search for a Northeast Passage and to Manhattan and the Hudson River and the search for a Northwest Passage. One note for the squeamish: the participants in the fight for control of the nutmeg trade did not obey the Marquis of Queensbury's rules for fighting fair. The book is full of beheadings; people being keelhauled and drawn and quartered and there is a horrific chapter on English sailors being tortured by their Dutch captors that is worthy of the worst things done during the Spanish Inquisition. If your picture of the Dutch East India Company is one of fat and jolly pipe smoking burghers, think again!

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nathaniel's Nutmeg, July 11, 2000

By 

Alan Breacher (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or the True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History (Mass Market Paperback)

I bought this book on a whim. It caught my interest in the bookshop because my wife is from Indonesia and I wanted to find out whether some of the terrible things she has told me the Dutch did in her country were true (I was to find out they were even worse than I expected). I also have an interest in British colonial history.

Much to my pleasant surprise I found this was a book I just couldn't put down. It was riveting! I suppose one could categorize this book as "popular history" because it reads much like a novel with many colorful characters and intriguing events that make up the early history of the English and Dutch East India companies, although its primary focus is on the former. I found the author's writing style to be very engrossing and easy to read, unlike many histories.

I became quite caught up in the excitement and horror of events, as described by Mr. Milton, but I had to keep reminding myself that the author is an Englishman. The obvious partisanship of the author was probably one of the weak points of the book: he made much reference to the crimes committed by the Dutch in the East Indies but, no doubt, the English traders had their fair share of rogues who committed other crimes - especially during the first half century of the English East India Company. It would be interesting to read a book on the same subject written by a Dutchman and compare and contrast!

However, to his credit, the author quite successfully shows how disorganized and irresponsible the directors of the East India Company could be, especially in regard to their choice of men to lead expeditions to the East. Many of the voyages the early traders made to the Indies were unsuccessful and resulted in the frequent loss of ships and men. Also, Milton shows that during the first 50 years of the company's operations, the traders and "factors" - company employees who had been given the task of developing trade at various (often remote) trading posts - tended to operate as individuals rather than team players so-to-speak, often with unpredictable and sometimes disastrous results to the detriment of the company.

One other point against the book is that the main subject of the book - referred to in the subtitle, the man who "changed the course of history" - does not have his story told until Chapter 10, near the end of the book. Every time I was introduced to a new character I asked myself whether he was going to be the one. Though, I suppose this is one way to keep the reader interested in events, and to keep reading.

However, despite these small drawbacks, I found this book to be thoroughly enjoyable and would whole heartedly recommend it to anyone interested in the early years of the English East India Company, the beginnings of British colonialism, and the spice trade. Oh, and by the way it also shows how New York and the East Indies were connected in terms of their founding. This book covers a lot of events in a relatively small number of pages but always manages to be interesting and enlightening. I am looking forward to reading Mr. Milton's next book, which should throw more light on early English colonialism in America.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellently researched, fascinating history..., September 29, 2000

By 

R. Peterson "International citizen" (Leverett, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nathaniel's Nutmeg: Or the True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History (Mass Market Paperback)

For someone who tends to read novels, this refreshing and fascinating book about the discovery of, exploitation of, and fighting for the East Indian spice islands was a lovely hiatus for me. Although titled in honor of the British Nathaniel Courthope who managed to hold the Dutch off the tiny spice island of Run, the book only spends one chapter on him toward the end. One of the reasons for this seemingly skewed portrait of Courthope and his accomplishment is that his grip on the island of Run allowed the British to eventually trade it with the Dutch for the island of Manhattan (and let's face it, how many people have heard of Run and how many have heard of Manhattan!) The bulk of the book describes in detail the numerous and various voyages, battles, and wild 'transactions' between the British, Portuguese and Dutch in their fight for possession and control of the valuable spice-producing islands (what today are part of Malaysia, Indonesia and other smaller island nations in the South Pacific).

In general this is a fascinating and exciting tale - made more exciting by the fact that is was real - real history. Specifically, it was obvious that the author was British as the reader is led to believe that the Dutch and Portuguese were absolute barbarians when in fact, the British captains and crew were certainly not all tea and crumpet types either. I also had a little trouble with the author's tendency to jump back and forth between Atlantic and Pacific voyages, and mentioning protagonists in one chapter and bringing them back in subsequent chapters - it was sometimes hard to follow who was where when. The most impressive part of this book for me was the fact that the author must have had to read through thousands of very old diaries, letters, and other correspondance of the time to have built such a wonderfully complete tale of this period in history set in a place in the world very few people know a good deal about. Just wonderful.