Giles Milton · 388 pages
Rating: (3.3K votes)
“In the Banda Islands, ten pounds of nutmeg cost less than one English penny. In London, that same spice sold for more than £2.10s. – a mark-up of a staggering 60,000 per cent. A small sackful was enough to set a man up for life, buying him a gabled dwelling in Holborn and a servant to attend to his needs”
― Giles Milton, quote from Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
“The local natives were particularly curious to know why the English required such huge quantities of pepper and there was much scratching of heads until it was finally agreed that English houses were so cold that the walls were plastered with crushed pepper in order to produce heat.”
― Giles Milton, quote from Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
“merchants who financed this expedition viewed it as a reconnaissance mission rather than a trading venture and little cargo was loaded on board the ships. Instead, all available space was converted into living space for the large number of men on board, a necessary feature of long voyages into the unknown. Many would die on the outward trip and for those that survived there was a cornucopia of tropical diseases awaiting them on their arrival in the East”
― Giles Milton, quote from Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
“Juet's journal frequently records how only a tiny quantity of alcohol was needed to get the Indians drunk, 'for they could not take it'; and tales of the drunkenness that greeted Hudsons' arrival persisted among the native Indians until the last century. Indeed Heckewelder claims that the name Manhattan is derived from the drunkenness that took place there, since the Indian word 'manahactanienk' means 'the island of general intoxication'.”
― Giles Milton, quote from Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
“The Queen coined new money specifically for the Company {East India}. Minted at the Tower of London and bearing her arms on one side and a portcullis on the other, it soon became know as the portcullis money. She also granted the merchants a new flag which, with its blue field and background of thirteen red and white stripes, prefigured the one adopted by the Thirteen Colonies of America some 175 years later.”
― Giles Milton, quote from Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
“He penned a letter to the Company in London, a letter whose unfailing spirit would become legendary among the sailors of the East India Company. 'I cannot tell where you should looke for me.' he wrote, 'because I live at the devotion of the winds and seas.'
(Written by/about Captain James Lancaster, on the ship Red Dragon, during a terrible storm, 1603)”
― Giles Milton, quote from Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
“The voyage had proved a human and financial disaster. Of the 198 men who rounded the Cape, only 25 returned alive. Worse still, two of the three ships had been lost and the one that did manage to limp into port was carrying not spices but scurvy. Lancaster had proved--if proof was needed--that the spice trade involved risks that London's merchants could ill afford. It was not until they learned that the Dutch had entered the spice race, and achieved a remarkable success, that they would consider financing a new expedition to the islands of the East Indies.”
― Giles Milton, quote from Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
“Hawkins was annoyed but placed his trust in tact and diplomacy. He sent a polite but firm letter to the Portuguese commander reminding him that their two countries were at peace and asking that ‘he release my men and goods, for that we were Englishmen.’ The commander was in no mood to be lenient and sent Hawkins a return letter ‘vilely abusing His Majesty [King James I] terming him King of Fishermen, and of an island of no import’.”
― Giles Milton, quote from Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
“Yet they are unmoved when told of the cruel blow that fortune has dealt them, happy to see out their days on this unknown and unspoiled atoll. They will tell you that the view from their windows is infinitely more magnificent than Manhattan's glittering skyline.”
― Giles Milton, quote from Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
“antagonist having one hand strapped behind his back and the other”
― Giles Milton, quote from Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
“Realising that Mauritius could be a valuable port of call for Dutch ships Heemskerck put a rooster and some hens ashore and planted orange and lemon seeds, invoking 'the Almighty God's blessing that He may lend His power to make them multiply and grow for the benefit of those who will visit the island after us'.”
― Giles Milton, quote from Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
“Setting sail from Tidore, his next port of call was the island of Celebes, where he found himself royally entertained by the King of Butung.... This island unknown to the English but Middleton (Captain David Middleton) enjoyed his stay here and found the King a curious fellow who was only to keen to entertain his guests with banquets and sweetmeats. Some meals were novel affairs; the ship's purser found himself eating in a room whose interior decor consisted entirely of rotting human heads, dangling from the ceiling.”
― Giles Milton, quote from Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
“At your arrival at Run,’ he had been told, ‘show yourself courteous and affable, for they are a peevish, perverse, diffident and perfidious people and apt to take disgust upon small occasions.”
― Giles Milton, quote from Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
“geography. In those days, Run was the most talked about island in the world, a place of such fabulous wealth that Eldorado’s gilded riches seemed tawdry by comparison.”
― Giles Milton, quote from Nathaniel's Nutmeg: How One Man's Courage Changed the Course of History
Giles Milton
Born place: in Buckinghamshire, The United Kingdom
Born date January 1, 1966
See more on GoodReads
“It was in this situation that she penetrated as a vague shape into the existence of Thomas. Everything there appeared desolate and mournful. Deserted shores where deeper and deeper absences, abandoned by the eternally departed sea after a magnificent shipwreck, gradually decomposed. She passed through strange dead cities where, rather than petrified shapes, mummified circumstances, she found a necropolis of movements, silences, voids; she hurled herself against the extraordinary sonority of nothingness which is made of the reverse of sound, and before her spread forth wondrous falls, dreamless sleep, the fading away which buries the dead in a life of dream, the death by which every man, even the weakest spirit, becomes spirit itself.”
― Maurice Blanchot, quote from Thomas the Obscure
“Life. I hate it. More than ever. And destiny, it can go to hell. I fucking hate destiny.”
― Jessica Sorensen, quote from The Probability of Violet & Luke
“you don’t give someone your love. They take it. Love is taken. And, when someone takes your love, you will know it. Do you understand?”
― Scott Hildreth, quote from Broken People
“A sickly sweet odor invaded Duncan’s head, pushing away the stench of burning hair. The fact that it smelled tasty made it even more disgusting.”
― Jack Kilborn, quote from Afraid
“maybe tonight you're scared of falling, and maybe there's somebody here or somewhere else you're thinking about, worrying over, fretting over, trying to figure out if you want to fall, or how and when you're gonna land, and i gotta tell you, friends, to stop thinking about the landing, because it's all about falling.”
― John Green, quote from Will ti presento Will
In Defense of Food:...
The Promise
Life A User's Manual
The Stone Diaries
Freak the Mighty
Nick & Norah's Infin...BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
