Show An Old Monopoly One of the smaller islands of the Netherlands East Indies is Am- Am Amboyna Amboyna Amboyna boyna which for more than two centuries had a world monopoly in inthe inthe inthe the production of cloves for which several battles were fought First settled by the Portuguese ab abOut ut 1509 the tIme island was taken in 1605 by the Dutch who also destroyed ar English settlement in the Am- Am Amboyna Amboyna Amboyna boyna masacre of 1623 While the Portuguese held heM the colony cloves were gr grOwn wn on sev sev- several eral islands in the vicinity but the th Dutch destroyed all the clove bear ing shrubs except those those on Am- Am Amboyna Amboyna Amboyna boyna and made the monOpoly mon poly more complete by selling cloves only at prices set by the govern govern- ment About 1770 the French succeeded in getting hold of some of the shrubs and began clove raising on ona ona ona a small scale on Mauritius and Re Re- Reunion Re-I Re union in the Indian Ocean Later they tile the were WC W e transported t to the West Vest Indies and to Zanzibar on the African African can coast the latter becoming an important producer by the middle of the last century In 1872 a great storm destroyed most Of f the trees on Zanzibar am and the thrifty Dutch who had stored large of cloves f fOr r many years reaped a rich harvest when the he world had to come to Amboy- Amboy Amboyna na again for Cor its almost exclusive supply Besides cloves Amboyna pro pro- produces produces duces other spices also als a large variety of tropical products which make it One ne of the richest islands of its gize ize ize in the world But it no longer has the complete clove mon mon- it once enjoyed |