"For European nations, granting monopoly trading rights to these companies was a convenient way of bankrolling the astronomical cost of colonial expansion" (Introduction, p. 1)

"Since there was no real benefit in reserving all the spice for the Dutch, the Orang Kaya had not abided by the agreement—if, indeed, they had ever considered doing so." (p. 12)

"For centuries, most people who used cloves, cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg and ginger, and even most of the those who trafficked in them, had no idea where these spices originated or how they grew." (p. 19).

"Coen's vision for the VOC coaxed great things from the company and from his little nation, but like an addict on a high, they eventually burned out from exhaustion." (p. 55).

"Why did the citizens of Holland's premiere North American colony prefer conquest by a foreign nation, a nation with which they had been at war for decades...