The nutmeg tree, Myristica fragrans, is a large evergreen tree native to Southeast Asia. Until the late 18th century, it only grew in one place in the world: a small group of islands in the Banda Sea, part of the Moluccas – or Spice Islands – in northeastern Indonesia. The tree is thickly branched with dense foliage of tough, dark green oval leaves, and produces small, yellow, bell-shaped flowers and pale yellow pear-shaped fruits. The fruit is encased in a fleshy husk. When the fruit is ripe, this husk splits into two halves along a ridge running the length of the fruit. Inside is a purple-brown shiny seed, 2–3 cm long by about 2 cm across, surrounded by a lacy red or crimson covering called an 'aril'. These are the sources of the two spices nutmeg and mace, the former being produced from the dried seed and the latter from the aril.

肉豆蔻(学名:Myristica fragrans)是东南亚本土的常绿高大乔木。直到18世纪晚期，它仅生长于世界上的某处地方:即班达海的某处小群岛，该群岛是印尼东北部马鲁古群岛的一部分，马鲁古也被称为“香料之岛”。肉豆蔻树枝叶繁茂，叶片为深绿色，呈椭圆形，长有黄色花朵，状如铃铛，果实梨形，呈淡黄色。果实包裹在果肉丰满的外皮之下。成熟时，果实会沿果皮表面隆起的脊棱线纵裂成两瓣。里面是锃亮的紫褐色种子，长2-3厘米宽约2厘米，表面覆盖着一层绯红色的假种皮。而这便是肉豆蔻和肉豆蔻干皮这两种香料的来源，前者由干燥的种子提炼而成，后者则由假种皮制成。

Nutmeg was a highly prized and costly ingredient in European cuisine in the Middle Ages, and was used as a flavouring, medicinal, and preservative agent. Throughout this period, the Arabs were the exclusive importers of the spice to Europe. They sold nutmeg for high prices to merchants based in Venice, but they never revealed the exact location of the source of this extremely valuable commodity. The Arab-Venetian dominance of the trade finally ended in 1512, when the Portuguese reached the Banda Islands and began exploiting its precious resources.

在中世纪欧洲，肉豆蔻是一种备受推崇且价格高昂的美食原料，常被当作调味品，药物和防腐剂。在此期间，阿拉伯人是欧洲诸国唯一的香料供应商。他们以高价将肉豆蔻出售给威尼斯商人，但他们从不透露这种极为珍贵的商品的确切产地。阿拉伯人与威尼斯商人之间的贸易垄断于1512年迎来了终结，在当时，葡萄牙人抵达了班达群岛，并开始开采当地的宝贵资源。

Always in danger of competition from neighbouring Spain, the Portuguese began subcontracting their spice distribution to Dutch traders. Profits began to flow into the Netherlands, and the Dutch commercial fleet swiftly grew into one of the largest in the world. The Dutch quietly gained control of most of the shipping and trading of spices in Northern Europe. Then, in 1580, Portugal fell under Spanish rule, and by the end of the 16th century the Dutch found themselves locked out of the market. As prices for pepper, nutmeg, and other spices soared across Europe, they decided to fight back.

葡萄牙人常处于与邻国西班牙竞争的危险境地于是便将香料业务分包给荷兰商人。荷兰因此开始从中获利，其商业舰队也迅速发展成全球规模最大的舰队之一。荷兰人偷偷掌控了北欧大部分的香料运输和贸易业务。随后，在1580年，葡萄牙被西班牙征服，到了16世纪末，荷兰人被迫退出市场。随着欧洲胡椒、肉豆蔻和其他香料的价格飙升，他们决定展开反击。

In 1602, Dutch merchants founded the VOC, a trading corporation better known as the Dutch East India Company. By 1617, the VOC was the richest commercial operation in the world. The company had 50,000 employees worldwide, with a private army of 30,000 men and a fleet of 200 ships. At the same time, thousands of people across Europe were dying of the plague, a highly contagious and deadly disease. Doctors were desperate for a way to stop the spread of this disease, and they decided nutmeg held the cure. Everybody wanted nutmeg, and many were willing to spare no expense to have it. Nutmeg bought for a few pennies in Indonesia could be sold for 68,000 times its original cost on the streets of London. The only problem was the short supply. And that's where the Dutch found their opportunity.

1602年，荷兰商人创建了VOC，这家贸易企业之后更名为荷兰东印度公司。到了1617年，VOC成为世界上最富有的商业集团。该企业在全球拥有50,000名员工、30,000名士兵组建的私人军队和200艘船构成的舰队。同时，欧洲各地成千上万的人死于鼠疫，这是一种致死率极高的烈性传染病。医生们迫切想找到阻断疾病传播的方法，因此他们将肉豆蔻用于治疗疾病。人人都想要肉豆蔻，很多人愿意不惜任何代价获得它。在印尼花几便士买到的肉豆蔻能在伦敦街头以原价的68,000倍出售。供不应求是唯一的问题。而荷兰人从中找到了商机。

The Banda Islands were ruled by local sultans who insisted on maintaining a neutral trading policy towards foreign powers. This allowed them to avoid the presence of Portuguese or Spanish troops on their soil, but it also left them unprotected from other invaders. In 1621, the Dutch arrived and took over. Once securely in control of the Bandas, the Dutch went to work protecting their new investment. They concentrated all nutmeg production into a few easily guarded areas, uprooting and destroying any trees outside the plantation zones. Anyone caught growing a nutmeg seedling or carrying seeds without the proper authority was severely punished. In addition, all exported nutmeg was covered with lime to make sure there was no chance a fertile seed which could be grown elsewhere would leave the islands. There was only one obstacle to Dutch domination. One of the Banda Islands, a sliver of land called Run, only 3 km long by less than 1 km wide, was under the control of the British. After decades of fighting for control of this tiny island, the Dutch and British arrived at a compromise settlement, the Treaty of Breda, in 1667. Intent on securing their hold over every nutmeg-producing island, the Dutch offered a trade: if the British would give them the island of Run, they would in turn give Britain a distant and much less valuable island in North America. The British agreed. That other island was Manhattan, which is how New Amsterdam became New York. The Dutch now had a monopoly over the nutmeg trade which would last for another century.

班达群岛由当地苏丹统治，他们坚持对外国列强采取中立的贸易政策。这使其避免了葡萄牙或西班牙军队对其领土的践踏，但也令该地无法得到其他侵略者的庇护。1621年，荷兰人抵达并接管群岛。在安心统领了班达群岛之后，荷兰人便开始维护其全新的投资项目。他们将肉豆蔻的生产全部集中到几处易于监守的区域，将种植区以外的所有树木连根拔起并摧毁。任何人在没有合法授权的情况下种植肉豆蔻幼苗或携带种子，都将受到严惩。此外所有出口的肉豆蔻都被撒上石灰，确保能在其他地方生长的可育种子无法离开这片岛屿。荷兰人的统治只剩下一个障碍。班达群岛有处被称为“卢恩”的领地，全长仅3公里，宽不到1公里，受英国人管辖。在为争夺这片小岛进行了数十年的争斗之后荷兰人和英国人签署了妥协方案，即1667年的《布雷达和约》。为了确保能统治所有种植肉豆蔻的岛屿，荷兰人提出了交涉:如果英国人能转让卢恩小岛，他们愿意赠送英国一处价值较低、地处偏远的北美岛屿。英国人同意了。这片岛屿便是曼哈顿这也是新阿姆斯特丹改名为纽约的原因。荷兰人于是对肉豆蔻的买卖拥有了垄断权，这种局势将持续一整个世纪。

Then, in 1770, a Frenchman named Pierre Poivre successfully smuggled nutmeg plants to safety in Mauritius, an island off the coast of Africa. Some of these were later exported to the Caribbean where they thrived, especially on the island of Grenada. Next, in 1778, a volcanic eruption in the Banda region caused a tsunami that wiped out half the nutmeg groves. Finally, in 1809, the British returned to Indonesia and seized the Banda Islands by force. They returned the islands to the Dutch in 1817, but not before transplanting hundreds of nutmeg seedlings to plantations in several locations across southern Asia. The Dutch nutmeg monopoly was over.

随后，在1770年，一位叫Pierre Poivre的法国人成功将肉豆蔻安全偷运到非洲的沿海岛国毛里求斯。其中一些肉豆蔻后来被出口至加勒比海，在那里蓬勃生长，尤其是在格林纳达岛上。接下来，在1778年，班达地区的一次火山喷发引发了海啸，彻底摧毁了一半的肉豆蔻园林。最终，在1809年，英国人返回印尼，通过武力占领了班达群岛。他们于1817年将岛屿归还给荷兰人，但在将数以百计的幼苗移植到南亚多片地区的种植园之前。荷兰对肉豆蔻的垄断便终结了。

Today, nutmeg is grown in Indonesia, the Caribbean, India, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka, and world nutmeg production is estimated to average between 10,000 and 12,000 tonnes per year.

如今，肉豆蔻在印尼、加勒比海、印度、马来西亚、巴布亚新几内亚和斯里兰卡都有种植，而且据估计，全球的肉豆蔻年均产量为10,000至12,000吨。