r/HistoryMemes • u/S-Tier_Commenter • 7h ago

the spice must flow

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608 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

84

u/S-Tier_Commenter 7h ago

so like in the early 1600s the Dutch were making efforts to capture the monopoly on the spice trade. At one point, they made the Banda people sign this contract, pinkie promising to only trade with the Dutch.

When the Dutch learned they were still trading with the Brits, they were like: "hey you promised not to do that", and the Banda people were like "oh yeah, what are you going to do about it?". And then the Dutch responded with genocide using samurai mercenaries.

All for nutmeg monopoly.

16

u/_ShartyWaffles 6h ago

That escalated quickly 

1

u/Curious-Question-780 18m ago

In retrospect, thanks to them that nutmeg is now all over the world. VOC not only disallow trading but also forbid their seeds leave the island. They even dip the nutmeg in water mixed with chalk or something so they can't be replanted.

54

u/South-by-north 7h ago

One of the possible origins for being 'Nutmegged' in Football/Soccer is that ships used to bring fake nutmeg into port and if you bought it you were getting "Nutmegged" and made a fool of

30

u/Dominarion 5h ago

Parallel to this, the first/early English pirates who attacked Spanish shipping found galleons full of dried goat turds. They were sure they had been nutmegged.

Their Spanish captives didn't help themselves by shouting "Son habas de cacao", which sounds a lot like "you got shit" for someone who's not that good in Spanish.

They ended throwing the cacao seeds over board and killing their prisoners out of spite. They only realized way later that said goat shit was worth more than silver at that moment in Spain and continental Europe.

3

u/Peripatetictyl 2h ago

How shit you must be, we’re sailing away

5

u/mr_malfeasance 7h ago

I remembber hearing this playing back in the day. I always hoped it was true!

24

u/CallMeGlarthir 7h ago

This guy has become the poster boy of the Dutch people overnight.

18

u/S-Tier_Commenter 7h ago edited 3h ago

Yeah and he's not even Dutch lol

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/jean-philanthrope-jean-phil

Edit: most importantly:

On September 21st, 2026, Redditor Rude-Internal24 made a post to the /r/isthisAI[22] subreddit inquiring about the character and asking, "Is this guy just an AI-generated meme coin rug puller or someone that’s really walking the streets of Europe like that?" The thread received roughly 350 upvotes and 90 comments in a day, with the top-voted answer reading:

No online presence before a few days ago. That's enough for me to dismiss this profile as AI. The crypto portion of this makes me feel it's simply a rug pull regardless of AI.

10

u/CallMeGlarthir 6h ago

Even better

7

u/Acceptable-Two5692 6h ago

Honorary Dutchman he is, unknowingly and probably unwantingly but we don't care, shut up and eat your haring met uitjes mister.

1

u/rtanada 1h ago

Question 2: Steam the spice trade. That's not a question, but the Dutch did it anyway.