Indonesian Spices Nutmegs & Cloves from Maluku (Molucas) island

Nutmeg and cloves from Banda Neira Island of Maluku (Molucas) Indonesia
Those innocent spice jars sitting in your cupboard don’t do much to reveal their incredible history. But did you know that nutmeg was once worth more by weight than gold? That in the 16th century, London dockworkers were paid their bonuses in cloves? That in 410 AD, when the Visigoths captured Rome, they demanded 3,000 pounds of peppercorns as ransom?

In its day, the spice trade was the world’s biggest industry: it established and destroyed empires, led to the discovery of new continents, and in many ways helped lay the foundation for the modern world.