Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Banda Islands, a remote cluster of eleven volcanic specks in eastern Indonesia, held the only nutmeg and mace production on Earth until the mid-19th century. These islands were the sole source of the spice for centuries until the Dutch East India Company established a monopoly there.
The first harvest does not arrive until 7 to 9 years after planting, and the trees do not reach full production until 20 years. This biological hurdle forces farmers to wait decades before seeing any return on their investment.
Nutmeg is the ground seed of the Myristica fragrans tree, while mace is the reddish seed covering or aril that envelops the nutmeg seed. Mace is flattened out and dried for 10 to 14 days, changing from crimson to a pale yellow or tan hue, whereas nutmeg shrinks away from its hard seed coat over 15 to 30 weeks of sun-drying.
Historian Willard Hanna estimated that before the struggle, the islands were populated by approximately 15,000 people, yet only 1,000 remained after the Dutch intervention. The Bandanese were killed, starved while fleeing, exiled, or sold as slaves to clear the way for a comprehensive nutmeg plantation system constructed by the Company.
The British invaded the Banda Islands and transplanted nutmeg trees to Sri Lanka, Penang, Bencoolen, and Singapore during the Napoleonic Wars. The spice also spread to other colonial holdings, notably Zanzibar and Grenada, where the nutmeg tree now thrives.