1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:14,760 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 3 00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:18,279 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. I really can't speak for 4 00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:21,520 Speaker 1: anywhere else but here in the United States, it can 5 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:24,600 Speaker 1: feel like there's just a whole lot of nutmeg around 6 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:31,040 Speaker 1: from roughly October into maybe early January. Nutmeg is in 7 00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:34,880 Speaker 1: the spice blend known as pumpkin spice, along with usually 8 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:39,360 Speaker 1: cinnamon and cloves, that does not taste anything like pumpkin, 9 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:43,279 Speaker 1: and it's not supposed to mimic pumpkin flavor. Those are 10 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:46,080 Speaker 1: the spices that are usually used to flavor pumpkin pies. 11 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:49,920 Speaker 1: It would be incredibly hard to miss the fact that nowadays, 12 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:54,040 Speaker 1: in the fall here there is just pumpkin spice blend 13 00:00:54,240 --> 00:01:00,400 Speaker 1: and seemingly everything everywhere. Then as we get more towards winter, 14 00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:05,480 Speaker 1: nutmeg goes into mulled ciders and mulled wines and eggnog, 15 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:09,480 Speaker 1: which is a personal favorite of mine. In my family, 16 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:13,720 Speaker 1: sugar cookies are a Christmas tradition, and the family sugar 17 00:01:13,760 --> 00:01:18,000 Speaker 1: cookie recipe is flavored with vanilla and nutmeg. Obviously, that's 18 00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:21,319 Speaker 1: not everything. Nutmeg goes into not even just in the 19 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:24,839 Speaker 1: United States, but it's December, so that's where my mind 20 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:29,680 Speaker 1: is right now. Behind the scenes, we're gonna talk about 21 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:33,559 Speaker 1: nutmeg is year round. Of course, nutmeg is not native 22 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:36,600 Speaker 1: to the United States. It is native to the Banda 23 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:40,679 Speaker 1: Islands in Indonesia. The Banda Islands are part of the 24 00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:45,600 Speaker 1: Malucas Archipelago that's also home to other spices, including cloves, 25 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:48,920 Speaker 1: so this region has also been called the Spice Islands. 26 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:54,120 Speaker 1: People living on these islands traded spice with Asia and 27 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:57,840 Speaker 1: with other parts of the Pacific for centuries before Europeans 28 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,480 Speaker 1: even knew where they were or frankly, what nutmeg was. 29 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:05,560 Speaker 1: But once Europeans found that out, they had an enormous 30 00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:09,000 Speaker 1: impact on nutmeg and on the islands that they were 31 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:12,280 Speaker 1: growing on and the people living there. That means some 32 00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:14,240 Speaker 1: of the history we are going to be talking about 33 00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:18,440 Speaker 1: today involves a lot of violence and genocide. The word 34 00:02:18,520 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: nutmeg is used to describe a number of fruits and 35 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:24,799 Speaker 1: seeds from all around the world. What we're talking about 36 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:29,160 Speaker 1: today comes from the meristica fragrance tree. It's an evergreen 37 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:32,480 Speaker 1: tree with broad, glossy leaves which can grow to between 38 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 1: nine and twelve meters or thirty and forty feet in height. 39 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:41,080 Speaker 1: This tree requires shade, especially when it's young, so it 40 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:46,960 Speaker 1: usually grows alongside larger trees. Nutmeg trees normally bear fruit 41 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,519 Speaker 1: for the first time when they're around seven years old, 42 00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:52,320 Speaker 1: and it's only around that time that you can tell 43 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:56,160 Speaker 1: whether it's a male or female tree, and the female 44 00:02:56,160 --> 00:02:59,360 Speaker 1: trees are the ones that produce fruit At the peak 45 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:01,960 Speaker 1: of productive vity. One of these trees can produce as 46 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:05,120 Speaker 1: many as twenty thousand fruit in a season, and they 47 00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:09,000 Speaker 1: can produce fruit for sixty years or more. They can 48 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:12,880 Speaker 1: even live for more than a century. The fruit of 49 00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:16,120 Speaker 1: this tree is a drupe, meaning a fleshy fruit that 50 00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:18,880 Speaker 1: usually has one single seed in the middle, like a 51 00:03:18,919 --> 00:03:22,640 Speaker 1: peach or an olive. The outer flesh of this droup 52 00:03:22,800 --> 00:03:25,520 Speaker 1: is pale yellow, and it is edible. People eat it 53 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:28,280 Speaker 1: in the areas where it grows, including by making it 54 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:33,119 Speaker 1: into jams. When the fruit fully matures, the outer fleshy 55 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:36,840 Speaker 1: part splits open, and that reveals a shiny brown seed 56 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:40,600 Speaker 1: in the middle. This seed is surrounded by an arrowl 57 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:43,960 Speaker 1: which is a softer and in this case, bright red layer. 58 00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:48,440 Speaker 1: The arrow of this particular seed is not a solid covering. 59 00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:52,440 Speaker 1: It looks almost like somebody haphazardly painted the seed from 60 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:55,520 Speaker 1: one end to the other in a thick red nail polish, 61 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 1: leaving some overlaps and some gaps. This is the source 62 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:04,240 Speaker 1: of two spices, nutmeg from the seed and mace from 63 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:07,640 Speaker 1: the aarrowl They have a similar flavor, which is warm 64 00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:10,640 Speaker 1: and earthy and a little bit nutty, but mace tends 65 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:15,080 Speaker 1: to be both lighter and pepperier. Turning these into spices 66 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:18,560 Speaker 1: involves removing the arrow from the seed and then drying 67 00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:22,839 Speaker 1: the two parts separately in the sun. This process takes 68 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:25,920 Speaker 1: just a few hours for mace, but drying and curing 69 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:30,600 Speaker 1: the nutmeg takes six to eight weeks. The nutmeg spice 70 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:35,000 Speaker 1: doesn't come from the whole seed, but from smaller kernels 71 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:38,520 Speaker 1: that are inside of it. Once the seed is fully dry, 72 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:42,200 Speaker 1: you can shake it and those rattle around in there. Typically, 73 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:45,200 Speaker 1: these kernels are removed by tapping one end of the 74 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:48,200 Speaker 1: seed covering to break it open. Sometimes that's done by 75 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:52,280 Speaker 1: hand and sometimes with a machine. You can purchase both 76 00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:57,000 Speaker 1: nutmeg and mace, either ground or whole. Whole. Nutmeg looks 77 00:04:57,000 --> 00:04:59,680 Speaker 1: like a little dried nut while mace blades, which is 78 00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:02,359 Speaker 1: what the whole form is called that looks more like 79 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:06,920 Speaker 1: little dried fruit strips. According to a twenty eighteen paper 80 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:10,599 Speaker 1: published in the journal Asian Perspectives that examined residues on 81 00:05:10,680 --> 00:05:14,560 Speaker 1: pottery fragments, the earliest known use of nutmeg and food 82 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:18,920 Speaker 1: dates back thirty five hundred years. Nutmeg was also one 83 00:05:18,920 --> 00:05:21,800 Speaker 1: of the first spices to be traded from these islands. 84 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:25,919 Speaker 1: The Bandonese traded nutmeg to other parts of Southeast Asia 85 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:29,479 Speaker 1: as long ago as two thousand BCE, and later to 86 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:34,840 Speaker 1: South and Southwest Asia. Over the centuries that followed, traders 87 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:37,560 Speaker 1: carried the spice to other parts of the world, including 88 00:05:37,640 --> 00:05:40,920 Speaker 1: Eastern Africa. It had probably made its way to the 89 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:44,919 Speaker 1: Roman Empire by about two thousand years ago. Pliny the 90 00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:49,000 Speaker 1: Elder described a tree whose fruit has two flavors that 91 00:05:49,200 --> 00:05:52,880 Speaker 1: sounds like it could be nutmeg. By the sixth century, 92 00:05:53,320 --> 00:05:56,520 Speaker 1: nutmeg had been introduced into what's now Istanbul, and by 93 00:05:56,560 --> 00:05:59,239 Speaker 1: the Middle Ages it had made its way to Western Europe. 94 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:03,560 Speaker 1: Centuries virtually all of the nutmeg that arrived in Western 95 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:07,440 Speaker 1: Europe got there via Arab traders through the port of Venice, 96 00:06:07,839 --> 00:06:10,960 Speaker 1: and for a long time Europeans didn't know exactly where 97 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:14,480 Speaker 1: this spice was coming from. Its origin was a closely 98 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:19,400 Speaker 1: guarded secret. It's possible that nutmeg was carried from Indonesia 99 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:23,600 Speaker 1: to Polynesia to the Americas before Columbus made his first 100 00:06:23,640 --> 00:06:27,080 Speaker 1: voyage in the fifteenth century, but the largest source of 101 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:30,920 Speaker 1: nutmeg was more likely to have been European colonists later on. 102 00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:35,520 Speaker 1: Throughout its history, nutmeg has been used to make incense 103 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:40,560 Speaker 1: and fragrances. The earliest references to medicinal uses for nutmeg 104 00:06:40,680 --> 00:06:43,680 Speaker 1: are in the Hindu texts known as the Vedas, which 105 00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:47,640 Speaker 1: date back to about fifteen hundred BCE on the Indian subcontinent. 106 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:52,520 Speaker 1: Chinese medical texts from the eighth century described using nutmeg 107 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:57,960 Speaker 1: to treat diarrhea. Persian mathematician and physician Ibincina, also known 108 00:06:57,960 --> 00:07:01,560 Speaker 1: as Avicenna, described as semi used for nutmeg and his 109 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:06,039 Speaker 1: Canon of Medicine in ten twenty five. In various parts 110 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:09,000 Speaker 1: of the world, nutmeg has also been used to treat 111 00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:12,440 Speaker 1: and prevent flatulence, and in more recent years there have 112 00:07:12,520 --> 00:07:16,560 Speaker 1: been controlled trials into whether it's effective against a range 113 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:22,480 Speaker 1: of conditions, including diabetic, neuropathy, depression, and digestive issues. Including 114 00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:27,280 Speaker 1: nausea and vomiting. Essential oils can be extracted from nutmeg 115 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:31,880 Speaker 1: and maze through pressing or steam distillation, which produces nutmeg 116 00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:35,840 Speaker 1: butter or oil of mace. In addition to being used 117 00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:40,520 Speaker 1: in condiments and fragrances, these are also used medicinally. Nutmeg 118 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:43,240 Speaker 1: butter in particular has also been used to make pain 119 00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:48,080 Speaker 1: relieving topical creams to treat conditions like arthritis, and there 120 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:51,560 Speaker 1: are some other uses for nutmeg as well. One of 121 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:56,040 Speaker 1: nutmeg's many compounds is called maristicin, and it has a 122 00:07:56,120 --> 00:08:01,960 Speaker 1: number of properties, including being insecticidal. Why twelfth century Holy 123 00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:05,559 Speaker 1: Roman Emperor Henry the sixth had the streets of Rome 124 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:10,240 Speaker 1: fumigated with it before his coronation. The Tale of Sir 125 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:14,160 Speaker 1: Topas from Jeffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, which was written at 126 00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:17,720 Speaker 1: the end of the fourteenth century, also includes a description 127 00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:21,800 Speaker 1: of riding through a fair forest full of wild beasts 128 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:25,360 Speaker 1: and herbs large and small, with one of those herbs 129 00:08:25,400 --> 00:08:29,040 Speaker 1: being quote note mudge to put an ale, whether it 130 00:08:29,080 --> 00:08:32,439 Speaker 1: be moist or stale, or for to lay in a coffer. 131 00:08:33,280 --> 00:08:36,320 Speaker 1: A coffer is a cabinet or a trunk where a 132 00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:39,640 Speaker 1: person would store their clothes, so it's possible that laying 133 00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:43,160 Speaker 1: nutmeg in the coffer was about keeping the moths or 134 00:08:43,160 --> 00:08:47,199 Speaker 1: the fleas or other pests away. And of course, nutmeg 135 00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:49,880 Speaker 1: has been used to flavor a wide range of sweet 136 00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:52,960 Speaker 1: and savory foods all over the world. It's one of 137 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:55,720 Speaker 1: the flavorings in bechamel sauce, which is one of the 138 00:08:55,760 --> 00:08:59,640 Speaker 1: mother sauces in French cuisine. It's also part of a 139 00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:03,760 Speaker 1: lot of spice blends, including mulling spices in various parts 140 00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:08,480 Speaker 1: of Europe, jerk seasonings in Jamaica, catre pice in France, 141 00:09:08,960 --> 00:09:12,800 Speaker 1: Speculus Croyden in the Netherlands, mixed spice in the uk 142 00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:17,280 Speaker 1: rasal hanout in Northern Africa, and of course pumpkin spice 143 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:20,960 Speaker 1: here in the US. Pumpkin spice might seem like a 144 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:24,560 Speaker 1: recent invention, based on its increasing ubiquity in the autumn 145 00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:27,640 Speaker 1: over the last couple of decades, but McCormick's first pumpkin 146 00:09:27,679 --> 00:09:32,680 Speaker 1: spice blend, containing cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice, launched ninety 147 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:36,600 Speaker 1: years ago in nineteen thirty four. Also, we know people 148 00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:39,719 Speaker 1: have extremely strong feelings about their spice blends, so if 149 00:09:39,720 --> 00:09:42,040 Speaker 1: in your opinion, nutmeg does not belong in one of 150 00:09:42,080 --> 00:09:45,400 Speaker 1: those that we just mentioned, absolutely don't use it in there, 151 00:09:45,720 --> 00:09:48,000 Speaker 1: or don't purchase the pre made ones that include it. 152 00:09:49,440 --> 00:09:55,400 Speaker 1: Historical medical literature also includes numerous accounts of nutmeg poisoning. 153 00:09:56,320 --> 00:10:00,560 Speaker 1: Nutmeg butter contains high concentrations of various subs distances that 154 00:10:00,679 --> 00:10:04,320 Speaker 1: can be toxic, but the spice can also be toxic 155 00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:10,000 Speaker 1: if it's ingested in large amounts. Overwhelmingly, these reports have 156 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:13,360 Speaker 1: not been from somebody just overdoing it with the nutmeg 157 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:17,320 Speaker 1: in their cooking, though some of the compounds in nutmeg 158 00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:20,960 Speaker 1: can be intoxicants or hallucinogens, and so there are cases 159 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:25,600 Speaker 1: of people poisoning themselves while intentionally ingesting it for that reason, 160 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:30,440 Speaker 1: But most of the reports in historical medical literature have 161 00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:34,520 Speaker 1: described someone who is attempting to terminate a pregnancy, and 162 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:38,520 Speaker 1: nearly all of those reports those attempts were not successful, 163 00:10:38,559 --> 00:10:43,040 Speaker 1: but the person did become very ill. In more recent years, 164 00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:47,160 Speaker 1: there have also been viral nutmeg challenges on social media, 165 00:10:47,280 --> 00:10:51,880 Speaker 1: leading to calls to poison control or even hospitalizations. Please 166 00:10:51,920 --> 00:10:58,480 Speaker 1: do not eat giant tablespoonsful of nutmeg. The risks of 167 00:10:58,679 --> 00:11:01,080 Speaker 1: ingesting large amounts of nutsg have been known for a 168 00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:04,280 Speaker 1: very long time. There was a saying at the Sealerno 169 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:07,200 Speaker 1: School of Medicine, which was founded in Salerno, Italy in 170 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:10,439 Speaker 1: the tenth century that quote, one nut is good for you, 171 00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:13,960 Speaker 1: the second will do you harm, the third will kill you. 172 00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:18,480 Speaker 1: To be clear, though there is only one known fatality 173 00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:21,400 Speaker 1: from ingesting nutmeg, which was in an eight year old 174 00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:25,760 Speaker 1: who ate two whole nutmegs. There is no antidote for 175 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:29,679 Speaker 1: nutmeg poisoning though, people are just given supportive care as 176 00:11:29,720 --> 00:11:33,400 Speaker 1: they recover, so once again, don't be chugging down tons 177 00:11:33,400 --> 00:11:38,960 Speaker 1: of nutmeg now. Today the vast majority of nutmeg being 178 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:44,719 Speaker 1: produced is used as a flavoring and processed foods like sausages. Globally, 179 00:11:44,880 --> 00:11:48,120 Speaker 1: about twelve thousand tons of nutmeg are produced annually and 180 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:51,600 Speaker 1: about two thousand tons of mace. That sounds like a lot, 181 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:54,079 Speaker 1: especially when you considering how much does come and like 182 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:57,480 Speaker 1: a little nutmeg jar for your house, But that's only 183 00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:01,600 Speaker 1: about ten percent of how much pepper is produced every year, 184 00:12:01,679 --> 00:12:06,280 Speaker 1: and pepper production is less than twenty percent of chili production. 185 00:12:07,400 --> 00:12:10,080 Speaker 1: After a quick sponsor break, we're gonna talk more about 186 00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:14,000 Speaker 1: the Banda Islands and what happened there after, Europeans learned 187 00:12:14,280 --> 00:12:26,720 Speaker 1: that they were the home of nutmeg. By the Middle Ages, 188 00:12:27,040 --> 00:12:30,880 Speaker 1: nutmeg had become a big part of Western European cuisine. 189 00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:33,800 Speaker 1: As we said earlier, most of it was being brought 190 00:12:33,800 --> 00:12:36,520 Speaker 1: to Venice by Arab traders and then going on to 191 00:12:36,559 --> 00:12:39,439 Speaker 1: the rest of Europe from there. In the late Middle 192 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:43,439 Speaker 1: Ages to the early Modern era, nutmeg was so popular 193 00:12:43,559 --> 00:12:47,160 Speaker 1: in Europe that people carried their own pocket graters and 194 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:50,160 Speaker 1: receptacles for the ground nutmeg so that they could grate 195 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:54,800 Speaker 1: fresh nutmeg onto their food there at the table. For 196 00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:59,120 Speaker 1: wealthy people, these were usually made of silver, and silversmiths 197 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:04,040 Speaker 1: used nutmeg vessels to really demonstrate their skills. Sometimes the 198 00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:07,000 Speaker 1: container and the greater were all one device that was 199 00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:10,840 Speaker 1: cleverly shaped like some kind of seed or something else entirely. 200 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:15,160 Speaker 1: Less wealthy people typically still had these if they had 201 00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:17,680 Speaker 1: enough money to afford nutmeg, but it would be something 202 00:13:17,679 --> 00:13:21,560 Speaker 1: more like a ten grater and a wooden box. The 203 00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:26,960 Speaker 1: seventeenth century cookbook The Accomplished Cook by Robert May demonstrates 204 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:30,360 Speaker 1: how popular nutmeg was in England in the early modern 205 00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:34,280 Speaker 1: period and how extensively it was being used in food. 206 00:13:34,679 --> 00:13:37,600 Speaker 1: This cookbook is about five hundred twenty pages long, and 207 00:13:37,640 --> 00:13:41,400 Speaker 1: it contained six hundred eight mentions of nutmeg and five 208 00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:45,360 Speaker 1: hundred sixty nine mentions of mace. And it's not just 209 00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:48,600 Speaker 1: in one kind of food. The recipes are arranged in 210 00:13:48,679 --> 00:13:52,960 Speaker 1: twenty four sections like boiled meats, roast meats, puddings, creams, 211 00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:57,840 Speaker 1: pies and tarts, fish and salads. That's salads just spelled differently. 212 00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:01,720 Speaker 1: The only sections that do don't seem to contain any nutmeg, 213 00:14:01,880 --> 00:14:05,280 Speaker 1: or the section on salads and the last section, which 214 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:08,720 Speaker 1: is about what to feed poultry. It's possible that there's 215 00:14:08,720 --> 00:14:11,400 Speaker 1: a nutmeg mentioned in the salads that I missed that's 216 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:14,640 Speaker 1: maybe spelled weirdly because there are a couple of spelling 217 00:14:14,760 --> 00:14:17,880 Speaker 1: variations in these in this book. But like basically every 218 00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:21,880 Speaker 1: kind of food had nutmeg in it. It's not entirely 219 00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:27,120 Speaker 1: clear when and how Europeans learned exactly where nutmeg came from. 220 00:14:28,040 --> 00:14:30,200 Speaker 1: A couple of the sources that were used in this 221 00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:35,920 Speaker 1: episode specifically mentioned geographer Zakaria al Kaswini, who was born 222 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:39,640 Speaker 1: in what's now Iran, and they claim that he disclosed 223 00:14:39,640 --> 00:14:43,240 Speaker 1: what had been a secret. I'm honestly not sure what 224 00:14:43,360 --> 00:14:45,880 Speaker 1: he might have said about nutmeg and his writing because 225 00:14:45,920 --> 00:14:49,160 Speaker 1: I did not have access to those texts, but he 226 00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:53,280 Speaker 1: did describe cinnamon as coming from a place called serendib 227 00:14:53,360 --> 00:14:56,320 Speaker 1: which was Sri Lanka. He did that about twelve seventy five. 228 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:00,000 Speaker 1: Ibn Batuta, who we've covered on the show before, all 229 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:03,040 Speaker 1: also described Sri Lanka as the home to cinnamon in 230 00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:06,880 Speaker 1: thirteen forty. So cinnamon is not nutmeg. Sri Lanka is 231 00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:09,560 Speaker 1: off the eastern coast of India. It is far to 232 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:12,640 Speaker 1: the west of the Banda Islands. But it's very clear 233 00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:16,680 Speaker 1: that sources like these translated into Latin, were one of 234 00:15:16,720 --> 00:15:21,560 Speaker 1: the ways Europeans learned about where various spices came from. 235 00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:25,560 Speaker 1: It's really likely that sources like these and other translations 236 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:29,640 Speaker 1: of Arabic works, with ongoing patterns of trade, and the 237 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:34,160 Speaker 1: accounts of European explorers and cartographers and other travelers, that 238 00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:38,320 Speaker 1: all this combined to give Europeans a general idea of 239 00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:42,400 Speaker 1: where the spice islands were by the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 240 00:15:43,280 --> 00:15:47,320 Speaker 1: With that knowledge, various European powers started trying to capture 241 00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:51,200 Speaker 1: parts of South and Southeast Asia, not just for nutmeg, 242 00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:53,640 Speaker 1: but for the other spices and trade goods that were 243 00:15:53,640 --> 00:15:57,280 Speaker 1: coming out of the region as well. In fifteen eleven, 244 00:15:57,400 --> 00:16:01,160 Speaker 1: a force led by Alfonso de Albuquerque of Portugal captured 245 00:16:01,160 --> 00:16:04,320 Speaker 1: Malacca in what's now Malaysia, which was a key trading 246 00:16:04,400 --> 00:16:08,640 Speaker 1: hub for the Indonesian archipelago. This made it possible for 247 00:16:08,680 --> 00:16:12,480 Speaker 1: the Portuguese to start buying nutmeg directly from the Banda 248 00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:17,560 Speaker 1: Islands rather than going through Arab traders. At that point, 249 00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:21,320 Speaker 1: the Portuguese didn't really have the military or naval strength 250 00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:25,440 Speaker 1: to start trying to conquer the islands themselves, but the 251 00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:29,640 Speaker 1: Dutch and the English did. The Dutch invaded the Banda 252 00:16:29,680 --> 00:16:33,640 Speaker 1: Islands in fifteen ninety nine and established the Dutch East 253 00:16:33,640 --> 00:16:38,600 Speaker 1: India Company or VOC. Two years later, in sixteen sixteen, 254 00:16:38,720 --> 00:16:42,120 Speaker 1: the English took control of the island of Run, which 255 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:45,240 Speaker 1: is part of this archipelago. They were basically just trying 256 00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:47,000 Speaker 1: to keep it out of the hands of the Dutch, 257 00:16:47,080 --> 00:16:51,040 Speaker 1: and then the English established the English East India Company. 258 00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:55,600 Speaker 1: The English and the Dutch fought over territory in these islands, 259 00:16:56,040 --> 00:17:00,600 Speaker 1: including the Dutch laying siege to Run and ultimately occupying 260 00:17:00,640 --> 00:17:05,159 Speaker 1: it in sixteen twenty one. The VOC aggressively worked to 261 00:17:05,240 --> 00:17:08,920 Speaker 1: limit nutmeg production only to the islands that it controlled, 262 00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:13,400 Speaker 1: and to establish a monopoly on the nutmeg trade. This 263 00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:17,160 Speaker 1: meant destroying nutmeg trees on islands it did not control 264 00:17:17,320 --> 00:17:20,680 Speaker 1: and trying to force the Bandonese to stop trading their 265 00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:25,639 Speaker 1: own nutmeg with any of their existing trading partners. There 266 00:17:25,800 --> 00:17:29,160 Speaker 1: was no central Bandonese authority for the Dutch or any 267 00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:32,680 Speaker 1: other European power to try to treat with. There were 268 00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:37,080 Speaker 1: various elders and families that had become wealthy as traders 269 00:17:37,119 --> 00:17:40,600 Speaker 1: on each of these islands, but even from one island 270 00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:46,760 Speaker 1: to another, there was no one primary authority figure. Broadly speaking, though, 271 00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:50,840 Speaker 1: the Bandonese refused to accept Dutch claims over the islands, 272 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:54,639 Speaker 1: and the idea of a trading monopoly was just completely 273 00:17:54,680 --> 00:17:58,639 Speaker 1: foreign to them. They aggressively fought back, and the Dutch 274 00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:01,520 Speaker 1: decided the best course of action would be to clear 275 00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:05,640 Speaker 1: the islands of as many of them as possible. At first, 276 00:18:05,840 --> 00:18:09,080 Speaker 1: the Dutch tried to get the Bandonese to leave, including 277 00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:12,800 Speaker 1: trying to convince them to surrender their weapons, destroy their 278 00:18:12,800 --> 00:18:15,879 Speaker 1: own villages, and allow the Dutch to deport them to 279 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:20,480 Speaker 1: somewhere else. When that didn't work, Governor General Jan Peterson 280 00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:23,520 Speaker 1: Kuhn met with his council to formulate a new plan, 281 00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:28,440 Speaker 1: and they unanimously agreed to burn down the Bandonese villages 282 00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:31,760 Speaker 1: and destroy all of their boats themselves, so that the 283 00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:34,080 Speaker 1: Bandonese would have no choice but to go where the 284 00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:38,639 Speaker 1: Dutch took them. During this sweep of destruction, the Dutch 285 00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:42,400 Speaker 1: captured and enslaved some of the Bandonese, but they massacred 286 00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:46,639 Speaker 1: many more. It's estimated that there were thirteen thousand to 287 00:18:46,760 --> 00:18:50,359 Speaker 1: fifteen thousand people living in the Banda Islands before the 288 00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:55,320 Speaker 1: Dutch conquest and genocide, and then only about one thousand afterward. 289 00:18:56,160 --> 00:18:59,040 Speaker 1: This took place over just a couple of months in 290 00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:03,280 Speaker 1: sixteen twenty one, but surviving Bandonese who had fled to 291 00:19:03,320 --> 00:19:07,280 Speaker 1: the mountains or to other nearby archipelagos continued to fight 292 00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:11,760 Speaker 1: against the Dutch for years. The people of the Banda 293 00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:16,080 Speaker 1: Islands had been nurturing and harvesting from nutmeg trees for 294 00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:19,639 Speaker 1: thousands of years. The trees were one part of the 295 00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:22,840 Speaker 1: land that they lived with, interconnected with everything else on 296 00:19:22,880 --> 00:19:26,679 Speaker 1: the islands that they shared. But the Dutch East India 297 00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:30,800 Speaker 1: Company moved to a system of large cultivated nutmeg estates, 298 00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:35,040 Speaker 1: including attempting to uproot young nutmeg trees out of their 299 00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:39,719 Speaker 1: forests to transplant them to these plantations. But the Bandonese 300 00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:42,120 Speaker 1: were the only people who actually knew how to grow 301 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:46,600 Speaker 1: and process nutmeg, so the Dutch intentionally divided up the 302 00:19:46,640 --> 00:19:52,000 Speaker 1: remaining Bandonese population, including separating families, to make sure there 303 00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:55,360 Speaker 1: was at least one person with the necessary knowledge at 304 00:19:55,359 --> 00:19:59,840 Speaker 1: each of the plantations. The resulting practices for cultivating these 305 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:05,160 Speaker 1: trees became a hybrid of indigenous knowledge and imported European methods. 306 00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:09,520 Speaker 1: The Dutch also enslaved people from other islands to work 307 00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:14,040 Speaker 1: on the plantations. About thirteen percent of the enslaved population 308 00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:17,200 Speaker 1: in the Banda Islands was Bandanese, and then the rest 309 00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:21,320 Speaker 1: were from somewhere else, usually in Southeast Asia, places that 310 00:20:21,359 --> 00:20:25,680 Speaker 1: the voc had claimed other territory. This had a similar 311 00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:31,480 Speaker 1: impact to the Transatlantic slave trade in Africa, including influencing 312 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:35,520 Speaker 1: the escalation of warfare among different peoples, as the Dutch 313 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:39,639 Speaker 1: then enslaved their prisoners of war. In addition to the 314 00:20:39,720 --> 00:20:44,240 Speaker 1: enslaved people who were working on nutmeg plantations, Dutch officials 315 00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:48,160 Speaker 1: also enslaved people in their households. They were also known 316 00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:51,080 Speaker 1: for forcing the people who they saw as the best 317 00:20:51,119 --> 00:20:55,480 Speaker 1: workers to serve on their trading ships. The Dutch East 318 00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:58,840 Speaker 1: India Company's efforts to keep the Banda Islands and its 319 00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:04,120 Speaker 1: nutmeg monopoly wasn't just a military effort. They also distributed 320 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:07,760 Speaker 1: inaccurate maps to try to keep other European powers from 321 00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:11,840 Speaker 1: knowing exactly where the islands were, and once they had 322 00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:16,440 Speaker 1: a monopoly, they artificially controlled the price of nutmeg, including 323 00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:20,520 Speaker 1: by burning down warehouses full of it when there was 324 00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:25,360 Speaker 1: an oversupply. The Dutch monopoly on nutmeg lasted for more 325 00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:29,080 Speaker 1: than a century. In sixteen sixty seven, the Dutch Republic 326 00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:33,000 Speaker 1: solidified its hold on these islands through the Treaty of Bretta, 327 00:21:33,119 --> 00:21:38,400 Speaker 1: which ended the Second Anglo Dutch War. This treaty formalized 328 00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:41,760 Speaker 1: Dutch control of the island of Run in exchange for 329 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:45,680 Speaker 1: English control of the island of Manhattan, which is why 330 00:21:45,760 --> 00:21:50,199 Speaker 1: sometimes people say the Dutch traded Manhattan for nutmeg. But 331 00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:54,600 Speaker 1: in seventeen sixty nine, French horticulturalist Pierre Poivre, who is 332 00:21:54,680 --> 00:21:58,240 Speaker 1: possibly the namesake of the nursery rhyme character Peter Piper, 333 00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:02,240 Speaker 1: smuggled thirty two nutmeg seed links from the Banda Islands 334 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:05,720 Speaker 1: to the French colony of Mauritius. This was actually his 335 00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:09,679 Speaker 1: second attempt. On his first try, only two of the 336 00:22:09,720 --> 00:22:15,119 Speaker 1: seedlings survived. By seventeen seventy three, nutmeg trees were also 337 00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:18,879 Speaker 1: being introduced to other French colonies that seemed like they 338 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:22,800 Speaker 1: might have the right climate for them. Later, during the 339 00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:27,600 Speaker 1: French Revolutionary Wars, the Dutch Republic became the Batavian Republic, 340 00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:31,400 Speaker 1: and then that came under control of the French Empire. 341 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:36,360 Speaker 1: So during the Napoleonic Wars, the British invaded the Banda Islands, 342 00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:40,080 Speaker 1: now considered part of the general French territory. That was 343 00:22:40,119 --> 00:22:43,520 Speaker 1: a campaign that took about seven months, and then after 344 00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:47,280 Speaker 1: taking control of the islands, the British started introducing nutmeg 345 00:22:47,359 --> 00:22:52,320 Speaker 1: trees to their colonies in the Caribbean as well. English 346 00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:57,160 Speaker 1: planter Frank Gurney introduced nutmeg trees to Grenada in eighteen 347 00:22:57,280 --> 00:23:01,520 Speaker 1: forty three, with the first commercial non utmeg plantation established 348 00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:05,800 Speaker 1: there in eighteen fifty. These new sources of nutmeg meant 349 00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:09,320 Speaker 1: that the price of nutmeg plummeted in North America in 350 00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:13,240 Speaker 1: the mid to late nineteenth century, Eventually, control of the 351 00:23:13,280 --> 00:23:16,080 Speaker 1: Banda Islands did return to the Dutch, but by that 352 00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:20,240 Speaker 1: point nutmeg trees had been transplanted to so many other 353 00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:24,399 Speaker 1: places controlled by other countries that there was no way 354 00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:29,080 Speaker 1: for the Dutch to re establish a monopoly. Slavery was 355 00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:34,080 Speaker 1: abolished in the Netherlands Indies in eighteen sixty three. Japan 356 00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:38,200 Speaker 1: invaded Indonesia during World War II, and Indonesia proclaimed its 357 00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:43,280 Speaker 1: independence shortly after the Japanese surrender. Today, Indonesia is the 358 00:23:43,320 --> 00:23:46,920 Speaker 1: source of about seventy five percent of global nutmeg production. 359 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:50,720 Speaker 1: Grenada was producing about twenty percent of the world's nutmeg 360 00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:54,960 Speaker 1: until Hurricane Ivan devastated the islands nutmeg trees in two 361 00:23:54,960 --> 00:23:58,760 Speaker 1: thousand and four. Since it takes roughly seven years for 362 00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:02,000 Speaker 1: nutmeg trees to produce their first fruit after being planted, 363 00:24:02,359 --> 00:24:04,600 Speaker 1: and it takes about twenty years for them to reach 364 00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:08,640 Speaker 1: full productivity, the nutmeg industry on Grenada took a very 365 00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:14,920 Speaker 1: long time to recover. Other sources of nutmeg include Sri Lanka, India, China, 366 00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:17,640 Speaker 1: and a number of islands off the coast of Africa 367 00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:21,520 Speaker 1: and in the Caribbean. After another sponsor break, we will 368 00:24:21,560 --> 00:24:24,240 Speaker 1: take a look at one of the weirder parts of 369 00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:38,760 Speaker 1: nutmeg's history. As Europeans started colonizing the Americas, as we 370 00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:42,879 Speaker 1: said earlier, they brought nutmeg with them. Nutmeg became less 371 00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:46,480 Speaker 1: expensive and more widely available in the United States after 372 00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:50,359 Speaker 1: the Dutch started to lose their monopoly. Between eighteen fifty 373 00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:55,440 Speaker 1: four and eighteen sixty eight, seventeen different mechanical nutmeg graters 374 00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:58,720 Speaker 1: were patented in the United States, so that's an indication 375 00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:03,920 Speaker 1: of how popular and available nutmeg was by then. Prior 376 00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:08,679 Speaker 1: to that, though, nutmeg could be really expensive, so sometimes 377 00:25:08,720 --> 00:25:12,040 Speaker 1: people made fake nutmegs out of wood to sell them 378 00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:17,800 Speaker 1: to unsuspecting people in place of the real thing. Maybe 379 00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:22,400 Speaker 1: there's some debate about this. A dried whole nutmeg does 380 00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:25,760 Speaker 1: look sort of like it's made of wood. It's feasible 381 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:28,480 Speaker 1: that someone could carve one and try to pass it 382 00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:32,359 Speaker 1: off as the real thing. But nutmeg has a very 383 00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:35,840 Speaker 1: distinct fragrance. It might not be as perceptible as a 384 00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:39,600 Speaker 1: whole dried seed, especially somewhere like a store where it 385 00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:43,280 Speaker 1: might be surrounded by other fragrance spices, but as soon 386 00:25:43,320 --> 00:25:45,639 Speaker 1: as someone tried to grade it onto their food, it 387 00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:48,720 Speaker 1: would be completely obvious that they were getting sawdust and 388 00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:52,119 Speaker 1: not nutmeg. It would not take long for word to 389 00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:54,760 Speaker 1: spread that so and so down at the mercantile was 390 00:25:54,800 --> 00:25:59,840 Speaker 1: selling wooden fake nutmegs. It might be more feasible for 391 00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:04,040 Speaker 1: a traveling peddler who could leave town before people realized 392 00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:07,439 Speaker 1: their nutmegs were fake. But if people knew there was 393 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:10,800 Speaker 1: a risk of buying wooden nutmegs, they could just take 394 00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:13,880 Speaker 1: a great big sniff before buying, and if it didn't 395 00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:17,760 Speaker 1: seem obvious at that point, insist on grading a tiny 396 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:21,520 Speaker 1: bit off to smell it before making a purchase. Another 397 00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:26,400 Speaker 1: possibility is that importers and wholesalers were using wooden nutmegs 398 00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:30,600 Speaker 1: to stretch out their stock, so mixing some wooden nutmegs 399 00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:33,680 Speaker 1: into a barrel of real ones before shipping it out again. 400 00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:38,000 Speaker 1: This is possibly a little bit more believable, although there 401 00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:40,359 Speaker 1: are questions of how much it would have cost to 402 00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:44,200 Speaker 1: pay someone to hand carved wooden nutmegs with a nineteenth 403 00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:47,320 Speaker 1: century tool, and how that would compare to the cost 404 00:26:47,359 --> 00:26:51,200 Speaker 1: of actually having real nutmegs. I've read a whole paper 405 00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:55,800 Speaker 1: on this trying to work out whether it was economically 406 00:26:55,840 --> 00:27:00,600 Speaker 1: feasible to con people in this way. Regard wordless of 407 00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:05,080 Speaker 1: whether people really were passing off wooden nutmegs as the 408 00:27:05,119 --> 00:27:09,040 Speaker 1: real thing, there was definitely a perception that this was happening. 409 00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:14,719 Speaker 1: The Oxford English Dictionary defines wooden nutmeg as quote a 410 00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:19,919 Speaker 1: false or fraudulent thing, a fraud, cheat, or deception, also 411 00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:24,000 Speaker 1: in more direct illusions, as representing the type of something 412 00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:28,000 Speaker 1: useless or worthless. A lot of the uses of the 413 00:27:28,119 --> 00:27:32,639 Speaker 1: term wooden nutmeg that the OED sites are about merchants 414 00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:38,960 Speaker 1: and pedlars, specifically Northern merchants and pedlars in the United States. 415 00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:43,360 Speaker 1: In addition to the anti Northern bias shown there, some 416 00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:47,040 Speaker 1: of these entries are also anti Semitic. They compare these 417 00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:52,000 Speaker 1: Northern pedlars to Jewish pedlars and then either imply or 418 00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:56,840 Speaker 1: just flat out state that Jewish people are also dishonest. 419 00:27:57,480 --> 00:28:00,240 Speaker 1: A number of these uses of the term woulden nutmeg 420 00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:05,600 Speaker 1: also particularly focused on peddlers from Connecticut. A lot of 421 00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:09,119 Speaker 1: the nutmeg supply in North America came through Connecticut Port, 422 00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:12,440 Speaker 1: which is connected to why one of the unofficial mottos 423 00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:17,360 Speaker 1: for Connecticut is the Nutmeg State, and Connecticut residents are 424 00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:22,679 Speaker 1: sometimes called nutmegers. I was in Connecticut this weekend, and 425 00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:25,760 Speaker 1: I mentioned that this was the topic of the episode 426 00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:28,720 Speaker 1: that I was working on, and the Connecticut residence there 427 00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:32,400 Speaker 1: immediately said, are you going to talk about Connecticut being 428 00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:38,360 Speaker 1: the nutmeg State? The oeds first use reported for wooden 429 00:28:38,560 --> 00:28:42,360 Speaker 1: nutmegs is cited as being published in eighteen twenty two. 430 00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:46,800 Speaker 1: This was in a pedestrian tour of two thousand, three 431 00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:50,400 Speaker 1: hundred miles in North America to the Lakes, the Canadas, 432 00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,520 Speaker 1: and the New England States, performed in the autumn of 433 00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:58,520 Speaker 1: eighteen twenty one, embellished with views by P. Stansbury, New 434 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:04,320 Speaker 1: York eighteen twenty that was published in North American Review. 435 00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:08,600 Speaker 1: One section described a group of people encountered by this 436 00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:13,080 Speaker 1: mister Stansbury quote. Among them were two persons whom he 437 00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:16,640 Speaker 1: pronounces to have been in the mild signification of the 438 00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:21,880 Speaker 1: term Boston sharpers, and who commenced business by a boisterous 439 00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:25,760 Speaker 1: colloquy about such smart men of their town, such and 440 00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:29,760 Speaker 1: such sharp fellows in their neighborhood, and made many shrewd 441 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:35,680 Speaker 1: remarks concerning horse dealing, swapping, purchasing molasses, and vending clocks, 442 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:38,960 Speaker 1: wooden bowls, and pumpkin pie dishes to the south ward. 443 00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:43,520 Speaker 1: We think we see the wicked smile of these rogues, 444 00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:47,440 Speaker 1: and making our poor pedestrian swallow all they chose to 445 00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:51,240 Speaker 1: put themselves off for, and a high treat they must 446 00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:55,080 Speaker 1: have had to see worthy mister Stansbury entering them in 447 00:29:55,160 --> 00:30:00,560 Speaker 1: his notebook, first as horse jockeys, then West India super cargoes, 448 00:30:00,920 --> 00:30:05,200 Speaker 1: then traveling peddlers, or rather all at once without the 449 00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:10,000 Speaker 1: good man's dreaming of the hoax. The Boston folks are sharp, 450 00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:13,720 Speaker 1: indeed rather too much so to blow themselves. Thus to 451 00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:18,920 Speaker 1: mister Stansbury, we have no doubt he expected every moment 452 00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:22,520 Speaker 1: to see the dogs pull out a bag of wooden nutmegs. 453 00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:27,320 Speaker 1: Another early example is from eighteen thirty six in the 454 00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:31,440 Speaker 1: Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville by Thomas 455 00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:36,080 Speaker 1: Halliburton that was published in the Nova Scotian. This passage 456 00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:39,800 Speaker 1: describes a captain Allspice of Nahaunt, which is a town 457 00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:44,160 Speaker 1: on a little peninsula in Massachusetts, roughly between Boston and Salem. 458 00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:47,400 Speaker 1: Quote he used to trade to Charleston, and he carried 459 00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:51,440 Speaker 1: a cargo once there of barrels of nutmegs. Well, he 460 00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:54,000 Speaker 1: put half a bushel of good ones into each end 461 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,080 Speaker 1: of the barrel, and the rest he filled up with 462 00:30:56,120 --> 00:30:59,680 Speaker 1: wooden ones, so like the real thing. No soul could 463 00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:02,760 Speaker 1: tell the difference until he bit one with his teeth, 464 00:31:03,120 --> 00:31:05,800 Speaker 1: and that he never thought of doing until he was 465 00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:09,640 Speaker 1: first bit himself. Well, it's been a standing joke with 466 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:13,920 Speaker 1: them Southerners again us ever since. This work uses the 467 00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:17,680 Speaker 1: term wooden nutmeg at two other points to describe someone 468 00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:23,320 Speaker 1: as a cheat. The idea that Northerners, especially northern merchants 469 00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:26,920 Speaker 1: and peddlers, were con artists, even made its way into 470 00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:32,120 Speaker 1: things like math problems. Elements of Algebra by Daniel Harvey Hill, 471 00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:36,680 Speaker 1: published in eighteen fifty seven, included this word problem quote. 472 00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:40,920 Speaker 1: A Yankee mixes a certain number of wooden nutmegs, which 473 00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:44,479 Speaker 1: cost him one quarter cent apiece, with a quality of 474 00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:48,880 Speaker 1: real nutmegs worth four cents apiece, and sells the whole 475 00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:52,400 Speaker 1: assortment for forty four dollars and gains three dollars seventy 476 00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:57,120 Speaker 1: five cents by the fraud. How many wooden nutmegs were there? 477 00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:01,520 Speaker 1: The answer, according to the text book, is one hundred. 478 00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:05,240 Speaker 1: I did some maths that came up with the answer 479 00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:07,880 Speaker 1: one hundred, but I don't know if that's the way 480 00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:11,360 Speaker 1: it was meant to be solved. Hill was a professor 481 00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:15,120 Speaker 1: of mathematics and civil engineering at Davidson College in North 482 00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:18,360 Speaker 1: Carolina and would go on to be a Confederate general. 483 00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:22,000 Speaker 1: One of the sources used in this episode framed all 484 00:32:22,040 --> 00:32:25,479 Speaker 1: of this as an example of Southern attitudes toward the 485 00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:29,000 Speaker 1: North in the years just before the US Civil War. 486 00:32:29,880 --> 00:32:34,080 Speaker 1: But this book was also published in Philadelphia, so if 487 00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:37,280 Speaker 1: that's the case, his northern publisher left it in there. 488 00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:41,080 Speaker 1: The use of the term wooden nutmegs went on long 489 00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:44,000 Speaker 1: past the end of the Dutch monopoly on the space. 490 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:48,400 Speaker 1: A nineteen eighteen article by Logan Israe was published in 491 00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:51,719 Speaker 1: the Mississippi Valley Historical Review, and it was titled the 492 00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:56,720 Speaker 1: Literary Spirit among the Early Ohio Valley Settlers. This essay 493 00:32:56,800 --> 00:32:59,720 Speaker 1: is about the availability of books and literature in the 494 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:03,000 Speaker 1: East Ohio Valley and the state of the publishing and 495 00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:07,360 Speaker 1: literary industries there. It reads, in part quote, how far 496 00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:11,360 Speaker 1: the commercial desire inspired the Western writers, One cannot tell, 497 00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:15,080 Speaker 1: but it had some influence. Nor was there an entire 498 00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:18,240 Speaker 1: lack of a book market in the valley. One writer 499 00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:22,360 Speaker 1: states that all the tin wagon, pitt coal, indigo, wooden nutmeg, 500 00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:26,360 Speaker 1: and wooden clock peddlers of Connecticut, then operating in the west, 501 00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:30,000 Speaker 1: had suddenly turned into book agents. Their books were said 502 00:33:30,040 --> 00:33:32,960 Speaker 1: to be out of date editions and unsalable books of 503 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:37,920 Speaker 1: New England refurnished with new dates and gaudy illustrations. We 504 00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:41,480 Speaker 1: only need refer to tradition to prove how successful were 505 00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:44,960 Speaker 1: these locusts in gulling the people. It may easily be 506 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:48,280 Speaker 1: surmised that many a Westerner imagined he could equal the 507 00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:52,200 Speaker 1: literary work in these books. The use of the word 508 00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:56,000 Speaker 1: wooden nutmegs to mean a dishonest cheat seems to have 509 00:33:56,040 --> 00:34:00,000 Speaker 1: been most prevalent in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Nowadays, 510 00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:03,000 Speaker 1: most of the uses of it that you'll see in 511 00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:07,760 Speaker 1: newly published things like news articles, magazine articles, things like 512 00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:11,479 Speaker 1: that they are in discussions of wooden nutmegs and where 513 00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:15,960 Speaker 1: that saying came from, not in most cases somebody actually 514 00:34:16,120 --> 00:34:21,680 Speaker 1: using it to describe someone else as untrustworthy. Uh, if 515 00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:24,440 Speaker 1: you are about to go enjoy some eggnog or sugar 516 00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:28,440 Speaker 1: cookies or pumpkin pie or mold cider or speculas or 517 00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:31,000 Speaker 1: sausage or jerk chicken, or any of the many other 518 00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:34,960 Speaker 1: dishes in the world that often include nutmeg. Please enjoy, 519 00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:40,000 Speaker 1: but not a whole giant spoonful. We beg, please do not. 520 00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:46,240 Speaker 1: Uh yeah, so that's nutmeg. I have a little listener 521 00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:48,600 Speaker 1: man also to take us out, bring us on a 522 00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:52,680 Speaker 1: delicious episode. This is from Ali, and Ali wrote to 523 00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:55,480 Speaker 1: us and said, Hi, I love you guys. I've been 524 00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:58,560 Speaker 1: listening to the podcast since I learned what podcasts were 525 00:34:58,719 --> 00:35:01,160 Speaker 1: Hahi at least a decade or so. My favorite show 526 00:35:01,160 --> 00:35:04,560 Speaker 1: by far. I heard you all mentioned open access journals 527 00:35:04,560 --> 00:35:06,319 Speaker 1: in an April episode, and I thought i'd give you 528 00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:09,840 Speaker 1: an insider look at this change in publication type. In 529 00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:13,040 Speaker 1: the past, the payment for publishing journals came from the 530 00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:16,279 Speaker 1: organizations that had a subscription and anyone who chose to 531 00:35:16,280 --> 00:35:19,719 Speaker 1: pay individually to read them. The authors, researchers and scientists, 532 00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:22,440 Speaker 1: generally at universities, did not pay to publish them and 533 00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:27,319 Speaker 1: also receive no payment. Open access allows readers to view 534 00:35:27,360 --> 00:35:31,440 Speaker 1: them for free. Amazing and how all of scientific information 535 00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:34,880 Speaker 1: should work. But to the researchers and professors now have 536 00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:37,360 Speaker 1: to be the ones who pay to publish the article. 537 00:35:37,440 --> 00:35:42,560 Speaker 1: About three thousand dollars US per article. Huge universities such 538 00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:45,240 Speaker 1: as Duke might have a fund for this, but most 539 00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:48,040 Speaker 1: universities and their professors have no money to do so. 540 00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:52,719 Speaker 1: Therefore this work now goes unpublished in those journals. More 541 00:35:52,760 --> 00:35:56,160 Speaker 1: and more publishing companies are going open access because the 542 00:35:56,200 --> 00:35:59,839 Speaker 1: payment they receive with certainty about three thousand dollars from 543 00:35:59,840 --> 00:36:04,120 Speaker 1: the professors might be more than they would get from subscriptions. 544 00:36:04,760 --> 00:36:08,360 Speaker 1: Scientists and researchers with smaller budgets, such as history professors, 545 00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:10,640 Speaker 1: are finding it more and more difficult to publish their 546 00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:14,399 Speaker 1: studies and work. The big budget are when organizations are 547 00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:17,040 Speaker 1: the ones who can afford it. Now, so we both 548 00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:20,799 Speaker 1: love and hate access. Scientific information should be open to all, 549 00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:26,640 Speaker 1: inaccessible for researchers to publish. Heart emoji, love you all, Ali, 550 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:31,000 Speaker 1: Thank you Ali for this. It's not really new information 551 00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:33,280 Speaker 1: to me, but I thought it might be to our listeners. 552 00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:39,480 Speaker 1: My opinion is that the entire ecosystem of academic journal 553 00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:46,760 Speaker 1: publishing is very broken in a variety of ways because 554 00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:52,080 Speaker 1: there's this whole issue. There are some resources available in 555 00:36:52,120 --> 00:36:56,279 Speaker 1: some cases for people to get funding to pay that 556 00:36:56,320 --> 00:37:00,200 Speaker 1: open access fee. I have somewhere on my computer or 557 00:37:00,239 --> 00:37:03,799 Speaker 1: a bookmarked list of like one particular organization that has 558 00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:07,000 Speaker 1: provided a lot of grant funding to researchers, and one 559 00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:11,240 Speaker 1: of the conditions is open access publishing that is then funded, 560 00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:14,440 Speaker 1: so like there are some options for that, but of 561 00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:18,120 Speaker 1: course those are in a limited supply and might not 562 00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:24,560 Speaker 1: exist in all the different fields and specializations. There's just 563 00:37:25,040 --> 00:37:27,919 Speaker 1: I feel like every time I turn around a new 564 00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:32,480 Speaker 1: headline about some kind of crisis in academic publishing, including 565 00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:36,319 Speaker 1: widespread stuff making it through peer review that should not 566 00:37:36,520 --> 00:37:40,239 Speaker 1: have and things being retracted that have gone on to 567 00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:44,040 Speaker 1: just be the basis of multiple other papers later on. 568 00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:48,400 Speaker 1: And for me as a person who is working on 569 00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:54,440 Speaker 1: a generalist podcast that does not have a budget to 570 00:37:54,560 --> 00:38:00,320 Speaker 1: pay individually for articles, sometimes when I'm working on something 571 00:38:00,400 --> 00:38:03,440 Speaker 1: like Unearthed, there might be hundreds of articles that I 572 00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:06,279 Speaker 1: am looking at and there's no way to pay the 573 00:38:06,480 --> 00:38:10,320 Speaker 1: somewhere between thirty and like seventy five dollars a piece 574 00:38:11,719 --> 00:38:16,120 Speaker 1: to read every one of them. I do have multiple 575 00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:22,359 Speaker 1: library cards to multiple library systems, including some academic libraries, 576 00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:26,480 Speaker 1: but even with that, sometimes, like if there's a paper 577 00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:31,440 Speaker 1: behind a seventy five dollars paywall or whatever that I 578 00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:33,919 Speaker 1: just don't have access to through any of those other 579 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:38,360 Speaker 1: resources that's probably not getting used on the show. Occasionally 580 00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:42,759 Speaker 1: it's the seventy five dollars paywall for an article that 581 00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:48,040 Speaker 1: was published a century ago, and that gets very wild 582 00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:50,279 Speaker 1: to me because that eventually we get to the point 583 00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:52,560 Speaker 1: where you would think that would be in the public domain, 584 00:38:52,680 --> 00:38:56,640 Speaker 1: but it's still behind a paywall. So a lot of 585 00:38:56,840 --> 00:39:02,160 Speaker 1: different ways to criticize and find frustrating with this entire industry, 586 00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:06,360 Speaker 1: and yet it's one that we rely on for our work, 587 00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:08,400 Speaker 1: and that you know, people I know who are in 588 00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:11,839 Speaker 1: academia also rely on for their work in a completely 589 00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:16,440 Speaker 1: different way. So thank you again, Ali for that email, 590 00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:22,040 Speaker 1: and to everyone for listening to my rant about academic publishing. 591 00:39:22,560 --> 00:39:24,200 Speaker 1: If you'd like to send us a note about this 592 00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:28,040 Speaker 1: or any other podcast story, history podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com, 593 00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:31,600 Speaker 1: and you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio 594 00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:36,480 Speaker 1: app and anywhere else you'd like to get your podcasts. 595 00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:43,480 Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 596 00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:48,399 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 597 00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:50,560 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.