The Plaice to Know
One-off· Indonesia· 1 mention on the show

Banda Islands

Banda Islands
Image via Wikimedia Commons

About Banda Islands

The Banda Islands are a volcanic group of ten small islands in the Banda Sea, about 140 km (87 mi) south of Seram Island and about 2,000 km (1,243 mi) east of Java, and constitute an administrative district (kecamatan) within the Central Maluku Regency in the Indonesian province of Maluku. The islands rise out of 4-to-6-kilometre deep ocean and have a total land area of approximately 172 square kilometres (66 sq mi); with associated maritime area this reaches 736.3 square kilometres (284.3 sq mi). They had a population of 18,544 at the 2010 Census and 20,924 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as of mid-2023 was 21,902. Until the mid-19th century the Banda Islands were the world's only source of the spices nutmeg and mace, produced from the nutmeg tree. The islands are also popular destinations for scuba diving and snorkeling. The main town and administrative centre is Banda Neira, located on the island of the same name.

On the show

The Dutch secured the Banda Islands in Indonesia — not actually a bad deal, trading Manhattan for the spice island, because the sheer amount of value they extracted by controlling the nutmeg trade. For about 150 years they controlled nutmeg and cloves pretty much worldwide — 98% of it — and the markup was about 60,000 percent between source and street value of nutmeg.

from No Such Thing As An Itching Powder Guild, 2023-02-10 at 00:38:20 · read transcript

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Coordinates: -4.5833, 129.9167

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