Stories of the spice trade of the East Indies have long held the imagination. Cloves, nutmeg, pepper, and cinnamon - indigenous to only 15 of the 13,000 islands forming the Indonesian archipelago - were to bring to the Indies a trade that existed for over 2,000 years, and were to change thecourse of history as nations battled for control of these precious commodities for use as preservatives, flavourings, fumigants, medicines, and perfumes.Carried by outrigger canoe to the East African coast and by camels along the Silk Road from China in the first and second centuries BC, spices led to the rise of the powerful maritime kingdoms of Srivijaya and Majapahit in the archipelago and, in the sixteenth century onwards, to the establishmentof trading monopolies and colonial empires as first the Portuguese, followed by the Spanish, Dutch, and English, broke into the lucrative spice trade.