Spiceries

 
I was reading the history of the London Merchants Honorable Company - the first stock society - that financed expeditions to the end of the world to import spices. Nutmeg, specifically. 

The nutmeg trade in the 17th century was dominated by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), which had a monopoly on the production and distribution of nutmeg in the Spice Islands (now known as the Maluku Islands) in present-day Indonesia. The VOC made enormous profits from the nutmeg trade, but individual people who became rich through the trade were often Dutch merchants, investors, and VOC officials.

One of the most famous examples of an individual who became rich through the nutmeg trade was Jan Pieterszoon Coen, a Dutch merchant and VOC official who founded the city of Batavia (now Jakarta) and helped to establish Dutch dominance over the Spice Islands. Another example is Isaac le Maire, a Dutch investor who financed several VOC expeditions to the Spice Islands and made a fortune from the nutmeg trade.

During the 17th century, Amsterdam was a major center of Jewish trade and finance, and many Dutch Jews were involved in international trade, including the spice trade. In particular, the Dutch Jewish community had close ties to the Dutch East India Company (VOC), which controlled the nutmeg trade in the Spice Islands. Some Dutch Jewish merchants and investors, such as the de Pintos and the Pereiras, were involved in financing VOC expeditions and trading in nutmeg and other spices.

Why would a European in the 17th century pay a fortune for nutmeg? I can buy any amount for a few sheqels in the local shuk. Asked IA and it became clear, nutmeg contains a psychoactive excitant. Is it a drug? asked IA. Yes, it is a drug.  There were no other drugs available in Europe at that time.

Nothing can stop human economic progress. Fueled by drugs.