Colour of Paradise

Colour of Paradise is a very readable work that nicely compliments what we read last week in Sacred Gifts. I always enjoy a book better when it tells me something new, and I had no idea that emeralds dug in Colombia found their way into the crowns of Mughal Emperors. With that said Kris Lane follows a familiar model of tracing the commodity chain from the remote mines of Muz to the treasure vaults of Nadir Shah. What is different about this commodity history is the attention he gives to the merchants who were responsible for moving the emeralds over the vast new trans-oceanic routes; merchants, who he points out, were disproportionately comprised of Portuguese Jews/conversos. In addition to what we saw in Norton, the information Lane provides supports the conclusion that these individuals were integral to the emerald economy.


I think Norton compliments this work not only because of its treatment of Jewish merchants, but also because Lane's goals follow a similar path hers did. Much like Norton, Lane wants to 're-orient' the discussion on the Atlantic world to bring in the ways Asia figured in to the post-Columbus world trade. Emeralds are the way he accomplishes this. "Emerald flows help clarify how, for a few centuries, Europeans wedded America to Asia," says Lane. (7)  This work's value comes primarily from the way it draws in the 'gun-powder empires' and places them in the global commodity trade while preserving their agency.