page_title: Giles Milton
section_title: Nathaniel's Nutmeg
hierarchical_section_title: Giles Milton / Nathaniel's Nutmeg
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Muskatnussbaum. A blühender Zweig mit männlichen Blüthen, nat. Grösse; 1 Staubgefässsäule mit Staubgefässen, vergrössert (stimmt mit der Zeichnung in Hayne, jedoch nicht mit Bâillon in der Beschreibung überein); 2 dieselbe im Längsschnitt, desgl.; 3 dieselbe im Querschnitt, desgl.; 4 Pollen, desgl.; 5 weibliche Blüthe, desgl.; 6 Stempel im Längsschnitt, desgl.; 7 Frucht mit der aufgesprungenen fleischigen Hülle, natürl. Grösse; 8 dieselbe mit halbirter Hülle, desgl.; 9 Nuss mit Arillus, desgl.; 10 dieselbe ohne Arillus, desgl.; 11 Nuss im Längsschnitt, desgl.; 12 Embryo, vergrössert. Latina: Myristica fragrans. Русский: Мускатник душистый. A — цветущая ветвь с мужскими цветками; 1 — тычиночная колонка с тычинками; 2 — то же в продольном разрезе; 3 — то же в поперечном разрезе; 4 — пыльца; 5 — женский цветок; 6 — пестик в продольном разрезе; 7 — плод с раскрывшейся оболочкой; 8 — то же с половинкой оболочки; 9 — семя (мускатный орех) с ариллусом (мускатным цветом); 10 — то же без ариллуса; 11 — семя в продольном разрезе; 12 — зародыш. English: Myristica fragrans illustration by Franz Eugen Köhler in Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen
context_page_description: Giles Milton is a British writer who specialises in narrative history. His books have been published in over twenty languages worldwide. He has written nine works of non-fiction, a thriller, two comic novels and three books for young children. He is best known for his 1999 best-selling title, Nathaniel's Nutmeg, a historical account of the violent struggle between the English and Dutch for control of the world supply of nutmeg in the early 17th century.
context_section_description: Nathaniel's Nutmeg follows the battles between English and Dutch merchant adventurers as they competed for control of the world supply of nutmeg, which commanded fabulous prices in the 17th century, because it was widely (and wrongly) thought to cure diseases such as the plague. (Nutmeg may in fact have some medicinal properties, but it does not possess the powers attributed to it in the seventeenth century.)
  By 1616, the Dutch had seized all of the principal islands, leaving Run as the only one not in their control. On Christmas Day, 1616, the English adventurer (and East India Company employee) Nathaniel Courthope arrived with two ships and persuaded the native islanders to grant him an exclusive monopoly over their annual nutmeg harvest. The agreement that was signed with the local chieftains did far more than that: the document effectively ceded the islands of Run and Ai to England in perpetuity.  "And whereas King James by the grace of God is King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, is also by the mercy of God King of Pooloway (Ai Island) and Poolarun (Run Island)."
  For the next five years, Courthope and his band of starving followers were besieged by a Dutch force one hundred times greater. The Dutch eventually captured Run, destroyed the plantations, and killed Courthope. According to Milton, the English, smarting over their loss of Run, "responded" 48 years later (in 1664) by attacking and annexing New Netherland, which they renamed New York.
  At the Treaty of Breda in 1667, ending the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch did not press their claims on New Netherland and largely agreed to maintain the colonial status quo. In Milton's narrative, this was in return for the English relinquishing their territorial claim to the island of Run.
caption: The nutmeg plant is native to Indonesia's Banda Islands. At that time one of the world's most valuable commodities, it drew the first European colonial adventurers to the East Indies, among them Nathaniel Courthope.
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