Have you heard of the Island of Run? Neither had I. In fact this most insignificant island of the Banda archipelago – 1.9 miles by .65 miles – often doesn’t even make it onto modern maps of the region. Nevertheless, for much of the 16 th and 17 th centuries this tiny atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean captivated the popular imagination and inspired the imperial avarice of the four great powers of that period. What we saw running amok in the shadowy corners of the world was two imperial powers vying for conquest. What I see in this story is a warning of what can happen with unsupervised authority – when power requires no consent and legitimacy is not derived from natural laws; laws that were rediscovered during the enlightenment and have been steadfastly and progressively protected using institutions built by and for us as individuals at the service of our reason. Both the Dutch East India Company and the English East India Company were para-state organizations; with charters from their Kings which encouraged the greed and bloodlust of corruptible men to engage in plunder, in piracy, in genocide, in colonization, in ethnic cleansing, in torture and in the construction of monopolies held by violence. This is the story of pre-enlightenment mischief sanctioned by absolute rulers for the enrichment of a few.

Nathaniel’s Nutmeg – A Book Review and a Lesson | Joel D Nathaniel’s Nutmeg – A Book Review and a Lesson | Joel D

Giles Milton was born in 1966. He was educated at Latymer Upper School and the University of Bristol, where he read English. His nonfiction books include Nathaniel's Nutmeg, Big Chief Elizabeth, Samurai William, The Riddle and the Knight, White Gold, Paradise Lost, Wolfram, Russian Roulette, Fascinating Footnotes from History. He is also the author of three novels, The Perfect Corpse, According to Arnoldand Edward Trencom's Nose.Ratnikas, Algirdas J. "Timeline Indonesia". Timelines.ws. Archived from the original on 10 July 2010 . Retrieved 12 August 2010. Fortnightly Club of Redlands, California". RedlandsFortnightly.org. 1 November 2001 . Retrieved 12 August 2010. A Cornish slave boy held captive in Morocco; a Jacobean adventurer in Japan; a young German artist conscripted into Hitler's war machine - Giles Milton's books focus on the stories of ordinary people who found themselves attempting to survive in extreme situations.

Nutmeg (The Diary of Samuel Pepys) Nutmeg (The Diary of Samuel Pepys)

In 1614 he was accused of purloining company resources and other offences by one dying man named, Edward Langley. [3] Szulinski, Cathi (30 April 2009). "The First Russian Students in England". Krotov.info . Retrieved 12 August 2010. Nathaniel Courthope: Oxford Biography Index entry". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press . Retrieved 12 August 2010. As you'll have gathered, this is about the spice trade, about which we have some hazy notion ("ah yes, the spice trade") but which repays a closer look. One penn'orth of nutmeg in the East Indies went for 50 shillings in London - that's a 60,000 per cent mark-up, I think - so imagine the incentive for greed, treachery, freebooting and murder. The stories are terrific, and Milton has trawled through the records (primary research - maximum respect) to intoxicating effect. The East India Company used to be a turn-off at school but if they'd told us just how gloves-off this capitalism could be the kids' attention would have been guaranteed. In the preface to the American edition of Fascinating Footnoteshe has written: 'Much of my working life is spent in the archives, delving through letters and personal papers. The huge collection housed in Britain’s National Archives is incompletely catalogued (the National Archives in Washington DC is somewhat better) and you can never be entirely sure what you will find in any given box of documents. Days can pass without unearthing anything of interest: I liken it to those metal-detecting treasure-hunters of North Carolina who scour the Outer Banks in the hope of turning up a Jacobean shilling or signet ring.Persistence often pays rich dividends and this book - an idiosyncratic collection of unknown historical chapters - is the result of my own metaphorical metal detecting. Amidst the flotsam and jetsam, I’ve found (I hope) some glittering gems.'

About Joel D. Hirst

Thanks to Courthope's defence of the island however, Britain was able to barter its legal title to the island of Run with the Dutch, for another island by the name of Manhattan. [7] Further reading [ edit ] On 25 December 1616, he landed his ships, Swan and Defence, on the island known as Run, the smallest (about 2 by 2.5 miles (3.2km ×4.0km)) of the Banda Islands, in a quest to break the Dutch hold on the nutmeg supply. He persuaded the islanders to enter an alliance with the British for nutmeg. After losing his two ships to mutiny and sinking by the Dutch, he fortified the island by erecting forts to overlook approaches from the east. [4] With 39 men and the natives, with scarce food and water (springs of which the island is devoid of) supply, he proceeded to hold off a siege of the Dutch - who outnumbered them considerably - for over 1,540 days. Despite numerous letters from the Company's directors allowing Courthope to leave his post, and even awarding him repeatedly for his efforts, he never gave in. Even after the fleet of Sir Thomas Dale sent from England to Run had been defeated by the Dutch governor of the archipelago, Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the decision never changed. The English departed without a struggle shortly after Courthope's death and their local allies - who considered themselves to be under His Majesty's reign - were being oppressed. [6] Milton, Giles (1999). Nathaniel's Nutmeg (reissue, illustrateded.). Penguin Books. ISBN 9780140292602. OCLC 44871451.