Nutmeg and No Mercy

A Bitter Slice of Colonial History

By: Jessica Jones

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The most brutal and profitable genocide you've never heard of.

In the early 17th century, a single spice was worth more than gold. Nutmeg—exotic, intoxicating, and found on only one tiny cluster of volcanic islands: the Banda Archipelago. When the ruthless Dutch East India Company (VOC)—the world’s first true multinational corporation—discovered this monopoly, they initiated a campaign of unrivaled cruelty to secure it.

This is the untold micro-history of imperial greed.

In just a few harrowing years, the VOC’s Governor-General, J.P. Coen, orchestrated the near-total extermination of the Bandanese people. What followed was a complex web of staggering wealth, political betrayal, and a devastating trade-off that indirectly led to the founding of New York.

Nutmeg and No Mercy uses fast-paced, authoritative narrative to rip through the polite veneer of colonial history and expose the bitter truth hidden beneath the spice's alluring aroma.

Discover:

• The shocking profit margin that drove men to mass murder.

• The single, pivotal treaty that traded a priceless island for a remote swamp (Manhattan).

• How a small band of islanders fought a global superpower for their freedom.

Read or listen now and discover the true cost of the spice trade.