William Durnpole

And me, William Durumple.

And today's episode, the second in our amazing story of the VOC, the Forgotten East India Company, that we always omit from stories when we talk about the English East India Company.

is, I think, one of the most extraordinary and little-known stories in the history of empire, at least little-known in the English-speaking world.

It's about the deathly rivalry between the English and the Dutch and the two East India companies, these two corporations that were empires, these incredibly rich precursors to the great and incredibly powerful corporations of our day.

And the story revolves around a spice so valuable that they were willing to torture and kill for it.

And the story culminates in a 17th century deal that changed the fortune of Manhattan forever.

Did you experiment?

So for those of you that missed the last episode with the wonderful Harold van der Linde, my travelling companion in Sumatra last week, we paddled up the rivers of Sumatra together and ended up with Harold eating kneecap, which is something that I have to say I avoided.

I opted for noodles instead.

So the story we told, or rather the story Harold amazingly educated us about

was the story of how the Dutch did the first stock market, invented the IPO, also invented how to fiddle it and did the first stock market short, invented financial regulations, all of which meant that the Dutch East India Company had far more, I think the word is capitalization, had far more cash in its coffers than the English East India Company and grew at an incredible rate, far faster than its English competitor.

And we ended the episode with the English and the Dutch in competition in Batavia and Jakarta with the two sides slightly facing off, which is where Giles' story will begin today.

Of course, masala chai's got nutmeg in it.

And you see those sort of beaks that they sell for Venetian outfits.

That, I think, was also an anti-plague sort of nutmeg holder, was it?

I love the idea of peeps being the sort of David Beckham influencer of the day.

Kind of nearer to Papua New Guinea than anywhere else, aren't they?

Mace and nutmeg come from the same fruit.

And we should perhaps explain, I mean, I'm sure people know this, but for anyone that doesn't, why there is this massive markup is that traditionally the nutmeg would be shunted from the Bandar Islands to somewhere like Srivijaya, modern Sumatra.

From there, Indian sailors would take it to somewhere like Kerala.