The Land Below the Wind: Spice Trade Route on XIII-XVIII AD

Pulau Banda: S4 33 18.5 E129 55 31.0
Pulau Ternate S8 12 49.8 E124 22 16.5
Makassar S5 08 00.0 E119 25 00.0
Kota Tua S6 8 15.52 E106 49 1.65

Spices as luxurious commodities have existed since thousands of years BC. Several manuscripts from the Middle East write about the use of spices as medicinal ingredients and for religious rituals. Chinese, Middle Eastern, and North African peoples flocked to interact with the people of the Archipelago to get the spices they wanted. Europeans originally bought spices from Middle Eastern traders in the Mediterranean Sea. However, with the political turmoil in the Middle East and trade bans, Europeans began to look for a way to the spice-producing islands and that later changed the political map in the Asian region, especially Southeast Asia.

Archipelago is a blessed land. It is the great home of the world's biodiversity. About 11% of the world's plant species are found in the tropical forests of the archipelago. There are more than 30,000 species, some of which are used and known as spices. Because of this, it cannot be denied that the archipelago is the capital of spices which, among other things, gave birth to clove, nutmeg, pepper and sandalwood, the main commodities of world spices, which during their heyday were exchanged for valuable objects.

Early evidence of archipelago’s role in the trade route in the Indian Ocean came from a Greek astronomer named Claudius Ptolomaeus who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, in the 1st century AD. He wrote a Guide to Geography, an ancient map in which a city named Barus was listed. which seems to be a very important ancient port city in Sumatra and the world. This ancient metropolitan name reminds us of an aromatic spice commodity that at that time was very valuable and was always sought after by foreign nations (Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Arabs, Chinese and Indians), namely camphor.

Nutmeg and cloves are attractive commodities from the Land Below the Wind. These two spices were important ingredients for medicine, and later for fragrances and flavoring dishes. The features of nutmeg and cloves are not only due to their properties and benefits, their scarcity and difficulty in obtaining them add to their value as a luxury and indicate social status in society. Both are exotic commodities, full of myths and legends about a place far to the east.

The clove and nutmeg producing islands in Maluku, Amboina and Banda became the direct destinations for traders who previously obtained these two commodities in Melaka. Among them, the VOC succeeded in monopolizing those islands by enforcing trade agreements and controlling the territory. After establishing its hegemony over the spice islands, VOC began to apply strict rules in order to maintain trade monopoly and high demand, by centralizing clove cultivation, introduce a new plantation system for nutmeg, building trading posts, and destroying rival ports.

The VOC needed enormous funds to carry out this policy, as well as to guarantee the availability and quality of spices, and maintain the security of distribution channels. In order to fulfill this and after studying wind patterns in the archipelago, the VOC used a system that is still used today: global stock market for perishable commodities.

Criterion (ii): The spice route is a trade route that existed long before the arrival of Europeans and was used by traders in the archipelago. Local farmers in spice islands have their own knowledge in managing the production of nutmeg and cloves. When European traders arrived, they introduced a new system to already established management and production of spices. The VOC introduced a systematic plantation which were previously managed traditionally. Combined with local knowledge, VOC managed to get maximum production of nutmeg and cloves.

The VOC's policy to monopolize nutmeg and cloves and securing their distribution routes required a vast amount of fund. To meet these funding needs, the VOC implemented a new trading system in the world, namely the global stock market for perishable commodities.

Crietrion (iv): The Maluku, Amboina and Banda Islands are an extraordinary landscape of small islands where traditional planting methods are optimized with the concept of European plantations being an example of the development of plantation technology, processing and transportation of spice commodities.

Batavia ended the Land Below the Wind by representing the development of the inter-island shipping system into inter-continental shipping to support the fast supply of spice commodities in Europe.

Authenticity:

The form and lay out of the Stad Neira still shows spatial pattern as same as when it was designed on the 17th century. Along with the development of the era there is a need to add new buildings, however, the addition of these buildings can still be controlled.

'Perk' or plantations created on the 17th century still survive today, in the form of community gardens. But not all Perks still have complete support buildings. Perk Waling is the only perk that is intact from the completeness of its supporters.

Clove plantations in Ternate and Tidore still use the same system as the 17th century as evidenced by the clove plantations that are still active on Mount Gamalama.

The Sultan's position as king and ruler who has control over clove production still survives today. The Palace Complex of the Sultanate of Ternate as the center of the Sultan's government is still functioning, although the location of the palace has changed according to the needs of the Sultan.

The fort as a trading post which was established to support the clove monopoly still survives today with a different function.

Integrity:

The story of the Land Below the Wind is a continuum between the nutmeg and clove producing areas of eastern Indonesia and the trade routes followed by the VOC in the past to reach these areas.

The nutmeg and clove plantation complex shows a unified production ecosystem from upstream to downstream. The components of this ecosystem can still be found so that the function of each component in the production of nutmeg and cloves can still be identified.

Trade routes were represented by the presence of trading posts established or seized by the VOC to monopolize and control the spice distribution routes. The largest trading post, namely Batavia, served as a hub that regulated the amount of incoming and outgoing commodities. This role is represented by the presence of several trading post components such as ports, canal networks, bridges, warehouses, and the governor general's office as the administrative center.