The Origins of a Groundbreaking Concept
In the seventeenth century, Run was the most talked about island in the world. It fails to make it onto maps nowadays, but at the time, this volcanic atoll located in present-day eastern Indonesia loomed large on copper-plate maps, its size disproportionate to its actual geography.
Nature had bestowed the island with a gift more precious than gold itself. Run, part of the islands known as the 'Spiceries' or Moluccas, was the world’s principal source of nutmeg - a luxury worth risking one’s life for. Nutmeg was believed to possess powerful medicinal properties, served as a preservative and flavoring, and was thought to cure the plague and increase sexual vitality.
Run became the epicenter of an intense competition among European nations for the control of the Spice Routes between Europe and Asia. This rivalry ushered in the Age of Great Explorers, when Columbus, Cabot, and Magellan - to name a few - set sail westward across the Atlantic, hoping to find a quicker route to the Spice Islands and break the Portuguese monopoly.
Read the full article edited by Sébastastien Gandon, Senior Client Portfolio Manager.