A large supply of nutmeg and clove plants arrived at Pinang in 1802, from the Molucca Islands.  There were 71,266 nutmeg and 55,264 clove plants; allowing one half of the former to have been male trees, there would only have been 35,633 useful nutmeg plants.  It is believed that a mere fraction of these ever reached maturity, but they served to introduce the cultivation permanently.  Plants were likewise sent to Ceylon and Cape Comorin.  It does not appear that the climates of these two localities suit the nutmeg tree, as it requires rain, or at least a very damp climate throughout the year.  The East India Company’s spice plantations in Pinang were sold in 1824, and the trees were dispersed over the island.

The spice cultivators of the Straits’ Settlements have for some time sought a further protective duty on nutmegs, and the extension of a similar protection to mace and cloves, the produce of these settlements; for singularly enough the present tariff affords no protection to mace, the growth of British possessions.  From tabular statements, furnished by the Chamber of Commerce of Pinang, drawn up apparently with great care, it appears that in 1843 there were 3,046 acres cultivated with spice trees in Pinang and province Wellesley, containing 233,995 nutmegs, and 80,418 clove trees, besides 77,671 trees in nurseries ready to be planted out; and by a similar statement from Singapore, which is however not so complete, that 743 acres are cultivated, containing 43,544 nutmeg trees.  The island of Pinang is estimated to contain 160 square miles, nearly the whole of which, with the exception perhaps of summits of the hills, is well adapted to spice growing.  Province Wellesley is of much greater extent, and the soil of it has already been proved to be equally well fitted for that kind of cultivation; and the settlements of Malacca and Singapore are said to be admirably suited, in many places, for that species of produce, the latter of which has already several plantations fast approaching to maturity.

The cultivation is capable of great extension; encouragement is only required to be held out, and new plantations will be rapidly formed in these settlements.  The same tables show that the produce in 1842 was, in Pinang and Province Wellesley, 18,560,281 nutmegs, 42,866 lbs. of mace, and 11,813 lbs. of cloves[51]; and in Singapore, 842,328 nutmegs, and 1,962 lbs. of mace.  Thus making the produce from the two settlements 19,408,608 nutmegs in number (or in weight 147,034 lbs.), 44,822 lbs. of mace, and 11,813 lbs. of cloves.  Now the consumption of these spices in Great Britain was, on an average of four years ending 1841, as follows:—­Nutmegs, 121,000 lbs.; mace, 18,000 lbs.; cloves, 92,000 lbs.  Showing, therefore, that the Straits’ Settlements already produce more than sufficient of the two former to supply the home market.

In the course of four or five years more, Pinang alone will more than double the present quantity of nutmegs and mace produced in the Straits, and the produce of cloves will be more than tripled.