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Having drastically reduced the islands' native
population, Coen divided the productive land of approximately half a million
nutmeg trees into sixty-eight 1.2-hectare perken. These land parcels
were then handed to Dutch planters known as perkeniers of which 34 were
on Lontar, 31 on Ai and 3 on Neira. With few Bandanese left to work them,
slaves from elsewhere were brought in. Now enjoying control of the nutmeg
production the VOC paid the perkeniers 1/122nd of the Dutch market price
for nutmeg, however, the perkeniers still profited immensely building
substantial villas with opulent imported European decorations.
The outlying island of Run was harder for the VOC
to control and they exterminated all nutmeg trees there. The production and
export of nutmeg was a VOC monopoly for almost two hundred years. Fort Belgica,
one of many forts built by the Dutch East India Company, is one of the largest
remaining European forts in Indonesia.
English-Dutch
