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Ch. 2: Gemstones, Prices, Trade, Size

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CHAPTER II.
PRICES, TRADE, PAWNS, SUMPTUARY LAWS, ROBBERIES, AND SIZE.
Prices and Trade. — The commercial value of precious
stones varies, like some other marketable commodities, according to the changes of fashion, and, like gold, they have risen
and fallen in price by financial operations, by political changes,
and by other adventitious considerations, but they have at all
times constituted an important article of trade. It is stated
that the price of diamonds fell fifty per cent when the interest
on the debt of Brazil, due to England, was paid in that gem,
and that in consequence of the political revolutions in Europe
during 1848 and 1849, tne diamond market received another
check, which greatly affected their prices. No article of commerce was so sensitive to the instability of the market consequent upon the discovery of the New World, as precious stones ;
and their importation into Europe in immense quantities caused
a panic among dealers, who endeavored to arrest this influx by
representing them inferior to those brought from the East.
As an illustration of the fluctuating prices of gems, it is
said that a cameo, with the portrait of Augustus and Livia,
belonging to the Herz collection, which cost four thousand
dollars, was sold, forty years later, for one hundred and fifty
dollars.
It is probable that precious stones became an article of
traffic at an early period of human history, even in the very
inrancy of nations, since they have always been highly valued
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Ch. 1: Precious-Stones Page of 401 Ch. 2: Gemstones, Prices, Trade, Size
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