Cinchona in the year 1851. Mr. [Thaddäus] Haenke mentioned the existence of cinchona bark on his visit to Yuracares in 1796". (Source: Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon, by Lieut. Lardner Gibbon, USN. Vol.II, Ch.6, pp. 146-47.) The cultivation of cinchona led from the 1890s to a decline in the price of quinine but the quality and production of raw bark by the Dutch in Indonesia led them to dominate world markets. The producers of processed drugs in Europe (especially Germany) however bargained and caused fluctuations in prices which led to a Dutch-led Cinchona Agreement in 1913 that ensured a
Jesuit's bark "Pulvis Patrum". The history of cinchona bark, which dates back more than 300 years, has greatly influenced that of pharmacy, botany, medicine, trade, theoretical and practical chemistry, and tropical agriculture. Circa 1650, the physician Sebastiano Bado declared that this bark had proved more precious to mankind than all the gold and silver that the Spaniards had obtained from South America, and the world confirmed his opinion. See also Swords, Ships and Sugar - The History of Nevis, by Vincent K. Hubbard, p. 73, where a large amount of "Peruvian Bark" had been captured by the pirate Basil Ringrose, also known