My g-g-g grandfather, Matthew Wallen(abt. 1719-1797), who was an amateur botanist, in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks now in the manuscripts section at the British Library (MSS 33.977 Vol.1, Banks correspondence, ff. 267; 23 September 1784) says that a "Captain Marshall took a French ship sent from the Isle of Bourbon with many fine plants which he presented to the Botanic Garden. Among them are Cinnamon, Mango, Mangosteens, Bread-fruit, not that of the S.sea, the walking Cane, 3 or 4 sorts of acacia & several others, that we don't yet know, but believe the Jack to be one. This ship had the Nutmeg, Cloves and Black Pepper but destroy'd them on finding she could not escape. Had our good people the attention of the French to their colonies we should not be long without these last." From that I would suggest that nutmeg may have come to the British West Indies rather later than 1782 which is the date that Cpat Marshall is said to have brought the other fruit. Marshall was part of Rodney's fleet. Edward Crawford ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Allicock" <richwyn@idirect.com> To: <CARIBBEAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2003 12:17 AM Subject: Nutmeg History Grenada > Hi Cindy, > > We should not take it literally that Sir Joseph Banks himself, physically went to Grenada and planted Nutmegs, or any other crop for that matter, or in any other of the British territories, while he was the botanical adviser to King George III. He may have advised it, to be grown by British colonists, because Kew Gardens had a long history of collecting plants from around the world and studying them. Since spices were so valuable, and the Dutch East Indies had a monopoly of it, the English had an incentive to study it and to see where it might be grown to the profit of the Crown and British Capitalists. Kew may also have looked at the chemistry of the Nutmeg in terms of extracts. > > So what you say here is quite true that : "I don't think Banks ever visited Grenada and I can say for sure he did > not introduce nutmegs - for one, he was a collector of plants for KEW > and then encouraged via prizes for others to plant specific species on > the islands." > > And what you say here may also be true. That: > > "Louis La Grenade, a French mulatto planter in the late 1700's is actually the first successful planter on the > island to grow the spice." If we can establish when La Granade actually began growing, the spice and if it was before 1782, then he has the credit, but for French growers, that is, as far as the British were concerned. > > When the British wrote the history of Nutmeg in the Island they would give credit to a Britisher, especially if his production ended up in the British Market. So what you say here can also be true that: > > "A British planter named Gurney .... is given credit for introducing nutmeg onto the island in 1843" although "Louis La Granade was cultivating it in the 1700's." And you do say "late 1700's" which puts it close to 1782 and after. But the question still remains to clinch the case, when in the 1700's? And if before 1782, the answer will still be that he was first among the French. > > Even giving credit to Gurney in 1843 might not be correct. Gurney may have only been the first large producer/exporter of the Spice to the British Market. I am sure there may have been many smaller experimental producers among the British, who did all the hard work of learning how to cultivate trees, tend them against pests, and parasites be they insect or fungi, and process the crop and preparing it for market etc., on a small limited scale. And the same thing may also be said for smaller French European or Mulatto planters before La Grenade. And you do say that he was "actually the first successful planter to grow the crop." But he may have been just the first succesful planter among the French. > > Even if the British learnt how to grow the crop from the French, they would give the credit to Gurney for being the first successful Britisher to produce large marketable crops for the British Market, just as credit may have been given to La Grenade by the French for being the first successful French planter for the French Market. > > But it still does not mean that it may not have been Sir Joseph Banks advice that led the British to experiment for themselves with growing the crop in the first place. Banks recommendation may have been crucial for the British. Why? With his advice, venture capitalists would come forward and be willing to invest in schemes to get the crop going. It was valuable enough to risk investing in it. Don't forget that for every successful plantation be it sugar or any other, there were a myriad of creditors, giving loans and mortgages to pay the costs of the plantation, to buy and prepare the land, provide food for the slaves, wages for the workers after slavery, costs of outfitting or chartering ships, insuring the ships and crops etc., long before the crop is even planted or harvested or shipped. With the failure of sugar cultivation and the advent of nutmeg cultivation as a possibility, the capitalists (adventurers as they were called in the 1600's) who may have lost money on s! > ugar in the 1840's after slavery was abolished, now had a new crop to recoup their losses. > > At least we are getting closer to a correct statement of the History of Nutmeg in Grenada. > > Richard > > > ==== CARIBBEAN Mailing List ==== > all messages posted to CARIBBEAN-L are archived at http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ > Before posting a query, see if the question has already been asked > > > ______________________________________________________________ > This message has been scanned by the Datanet VirusScreen Service, > powered by BT Ignite and Messagelabs. For more information please > visit http://www.VirusScreen.co.uk. > ______________________________________________________________ This message has been scanned by the Datanet VirusScreen Service, powered by BT Ignite and Messagelabs. For more information please visit http://www.VirusScreen.co.uk.