chap, xviii THE GREAT MOGUL'S DIAMOND 75
of
1 carat, would not be worth more than 60 or 80 or 100 livres at the
most, according to the beauty of the diamond. You must then square the
weight of the diamond, i.e. 15 carats, and next multiply the product
125 by the value of the stone of 1 carat, which may for example be 80
livres, and the product, which is 10,000 l livres, is the price of the diamond of 15 carats.
It
is easy to see from this the great difference in value between a
perfect stone and one which is not so. For if this stone of 15 carats
had been perfect, the second multiplication would be by 150, which is
the price of a perfect stone of 1 carat, and then it would amount not
to 10,000 livres, but to 33,750 livres, i.e. to 23,750 2 livres more than an imperfect diamond of the same weight.
According
to this rule, the following is the value of the two largest among the
cut stones in the world—one of them in Asia belonging to the Great
Mogul, the other in Europe belonging to the Grand Duke of Tuscany—as
will be seen by the subjoined figures.
The
Great Mogul's diamond weighs 279 9/16 carats, is of perfect water, good
form, and has only a small flaw which is in the edge of the basal
circumference of the stone. Except for this flaw the first carat would
be placed at 160 livres, but on that account I do not estimate it at
more than 150, and so calculated according to the above given rule it
reaches the sum of 11,723,278 livres, 14 sols, and 3 Hards. If this
diamond only weighed 279 carats, it would have been worth 11,676,150
livres only, and thus these 9/16,ths are worth 47,128 livres, 14 sols,
3 liards.3
1
£750. But this calculation, though represented graphically as a sum in
figures, in the original, is wholly incorrect, as 15 X 15 = 225, not
125, and the product of its multiplication by 80 is 18,000 instead of
10,000 livres; the value of the diamond consequently would be £1,350.
In the edition of Tavernier of 1678, this sum is correctly worked out
to 18,000 livres.
2
i. e. £2,531 5s., and £1,781 5s. The former is correctly calculated,
but the latter should be 33,750—18,000 livres = 15,750 livres = £1,181
5s.
3 These amounts are equivalent to £879,245 18s. 1 1/2d., £875,711 5s., and £3,534 13s. ld.—the livre being 1s. 6d., and the sol 0.9 d.
