Food history: How the French ‘stole’ and transplanted cloves in their colonies in the 18th century

Nations that controlled islands where spices were grown were extremely protective of their crops. The Dutch, above all, were highly sensitive about protection. To stop their nutmeg from being reseeded, they covered this export crop with lime. The Dutch also set their clove groves on fire both to control the market and to keep others from getting a new crop from the plants. During the Age of Exploration and into the 19th century, there were many attempts by European nations to steal spice seeds or plants. In the last quarter of the 18th century, a French adventurer, Pierre Poivre (Peter Pepper), was successful. Poivre had spent a great deal of time in Asia as a young man, doing various types of work for the French. At different times he was a prisoner of the Dutch, and he lost an arm when his ship was taken by the British near the Straits of Malacca. He was especially interested in botany and decided to try to bring tropical plants into French hands. On a few occasions he attempted to transplant clove and nutmeg onto French soil, but the seedlings always died. He eventually settled on Mauritius, in the south-west Indian Ocean just...

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