they
are at the mercy of the merchant, who makes them pay far more than the
market value; and to the inexperienced purchaser, the best security
for obtaining a fair value for his money will be found—in this
commodity as in any other—in the knowledge and character of the vendor.
Many
fluctuations have taken place in the value of this gem, since the
discovery of the art of cutting it in 1457, which first gave it a value
in Europe. At first the imperfect communication with India, and the
small number of persons sufficiently wealthy to purchase them, confined
their possession to the princes and nobles of the period. The value of
money, also, was so much greater in proportion to the prices of the
staples of life, that even if the values then obtained were known to
us, it would give but a faint idea of their prices in comparison with
those of this day. In 1606, at a sale by auction at Venice, of the
effects of a great diamond merchant named Giovanni Ricardo, the price
of a diamond weighing one carat, as recorded by Portaleone, in his
work called ' Shilti Hageborim,' was £21. 13s. 4d.; in the year 1750, just before the discovery of the diamond mines in the Brazils, the price of a stone of the same weight was £ 8; and,
in 1791, the commission of French jewellers, appointed by the National
Convention to value the Crown jewels, fixed the price of diamonds of
one carat (which we may infer were of fine quality) at no more than sS6. Before this time, however, the importation of diamonds from Bahia had lowered the
