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

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.

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.