Mace (Foelie) (Dutch: foelie, also macis) was the dried aril — the lacy red-orange covering (Dutch: arilus) surrounding the nutmeg seed — exported through the residency of Atjeh as a high-value spice in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The large suppliers of mace were the Moluccas (Dutch: Molukken), the historic centre of nutmeg production since the VOC monopoly of the seventeenth century, and — after the development of plantations in the late nineteenth century — the island of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles (Dutch: Kleine Antillen). Mace complemented the nutmeg trade, reinforcing the role of Aceh as a redistribution hub in the broader spice network of the Indonesian archipelago and the Indian Ocean.
Production
The nutmeg fruit (Myristica fragrans) splits open when ripe to reveal a glossy purple-brown seed enclosed in a brilliant scarlet, net-like aril. The aril was carefully peeled away from the seed by hand — a delicate and labour-intensive operation, since the aril clings tightly to the seed-coat — and then dried in the sun for several days. As it dried, the bright red aril faded to a yellowish-orange, brittle, slightly translucent blade about three to four centimetres long, which was then graded by colour and size and packed in mats or tins for export. The drying ratio was approximately five to one, so that five kilograms of fresh aril yielded about one kilogram of dried mace.
The closely related nutmeg trade — the dried seed kernel itself — was the principal product, with mace as a smaller but higher-value by-product. Each kilogram of nutmeg was typically accompanied by about 100 grams of mace, but the price per kilogram of mace was generally two to three times that of nutmeg itself.
Trade and historical significance
Mace was exported as a high-value spice, often used in European confectionery, sausage-making, and medicine. The European pharmaceutical trade prized mace for its essential oil (Dutch: foelie-olie), which contains myristicin and was used in the preparation of stomach remedies, dental elixirs and inhalants. The food industry used ground mace in spice mixtures for sausages, baked goods, and the traditional Dutch speculaas biscuits.
The mace trade illustrated the interconnectedness of the Indian Ocean spice network, with Aceh acting as a redistribution hub for spices coming from the Moluccas, Zanzibar and — increasingly in the early twentieth century — the British-controlled plantations of Grenada. The Dutch colonial administration attempted to maintain a monopoly on Moluccan nutmeg and mace through the Cultuurstelsel of spice gardens on the Banda Islands, but the breakdown of monopoly control after the 1860s and the rise of Grenada production gradually forced Atjeh’s spice merchants to compete in an open world market.
By the 1930s the consolidation of the spice trade through direct steamship lines between the Moluccas and Europe had reduced the redistributive function of Atjeh, though Penang-based Chinese merchants continued to channel mace through the free port of Sabang until the Japanese occupation of 1942.
See Also
- Nutmeg (Aceh)
- Cloves (Aceh)
- White Pepper (Aceh)
- Black Pepper (Aceh)
- Molukken
- Sabang
- Koeta-Radja
- Dutch East India Company
- Cultuurstelsel
- Sultanate of Acheh
- 1930
Source
DLP-84-Atjeh.pdf, pp. 13-14.