the multiple price per grain, not the flat grain price.
The
price of pearls has increased even more than that of diamonds in the
last fifteen years. In common with many other things it has risen with
the rapid increase of wealth and the tremendous additions to the
world's stock of the standard or measure of values,—gold. Beyond this,
the demand for pearls, owing to the adoption of them as a fashion in
the United States where a large proportion of the world's wealth is
being created, has been stimulated to such a degree that the price of
them has advanced in a greater ratio to the depreciation of gold and
other forms of wealth than most commodities.
Twenty
years ago good round Indian pearls up to five grains could be bought
for $1.50 base; to-day such pearls would cost $4.50 base and whereas in
those days pieces of extraordinary luster were allowed to remain in
the parcels and were sold at the same rate with the others, they are
now culled from the lots and held for extraordinary prices. Size also
now counts beyond the multiple of the square. The quality
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