Considering the diverging fortunes of the two islands since that year, this appears at first blush to be the worst deal in history for the Dutch, who formally gained Rhun and lost Manhattan. Likewise, the Dutch didn’t gain Rhun, because they had already seized it to tighten their ruthless monopoly of the nutmeg trade. The 1667 Treaty of Breda, which ended the Second Anglo-Dutch War (out of four), merely acknowledged the facts on the ground. On paper, the deal was even worse for the Dutch than if it had been only an island-for-island exchange. (A separate treaty allowed Dutch ships to carry some cargoes to England without tariffs.)

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