realising from a hundred to two hundred per cent. on the capital expended. For the first few years, the English merchants and factors apparently lived on friendly terms with the Dutch; and this continued so long as the English were satisfied with the goods they could obtain in Sumatra and Java, and refrained from trading at the small Spice Islands, now known as the Moluccas and Bandas. These Islands, as we shall presently see, were regarded by the Dutch as their peculiar property; and they alone produced the finer spices, such as nutmegs, for which fabulous prices could be obtained in the markets at home.
Thus the English established two principal factories; one at Acheen in the Island of Sumatra, and the other at Bantam in the Island of Java. The goods they brought out consisted partly of British staples, such as cloth, lead, and tin; partly of British manufactures, such as cutlery and glass; and partly of foreign merchandize, such as quick- silver and Russian hides. In return they obtained cargoes of raw silk, indigo, pepper, cloves, and mace; articles which, together with even the more precious nutmegs, are now to be found in every cottager's cupboard in Great Britain, but which in the days of the Stuarts and early Georges, fetched prices which would strike terror into the hearts of modern housekeepers. But a great event was at hand, no less than the establishment of an English Factory on the Indian continent. As early as 1608, the Factors in Java reported home that there was a
great demand in the Islands for the cloths and
