The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor (W W Norton & Company; 1998)

SOUTH EAST ASIA AND THE INDONESIAN ARCHIPELAGO
For the Dutch, the great source of treasure was the "Spice Islands"—the Moluccas and Banda islands. That
was where the rarest condiments came from—cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon—and laid the basis of monopoly.