Emeralds

The fundamental question at the root of Colour of Paradise: The Emerald in the Age of Gunpowder Empires, as Kris Lane proffers, is how did "deep-green gems ... [get] out of South America and halfway around the world to Asia in the age of sail and gunpowder ... [and] who mined them and who traded them?" (7). Moreover, how did a seemingly useless gemstone become the currency of power in the Islamic world? In answering these questions Lane utilizes emeralds and their global movement to illustrate a broader point about the value of 'things'.

"It is my belief that emeralds, really only a few thousand pounds of beautiful but useless stones that happened to find special significance in the Islamic world between 1550 and 1750, raise questions rarely asked by economic historians," writes Lane, for "[if] we follow economic anthropologists and some sociologists and expand 'economy' to include all human relationships mediated by material goods, globe-circling emeralds find new significance," (12). That is to say, Lane suggests that historians must explore their subjects beyond the tangible economic value of things. As his work rather convincingly proves, the social life of emeralds evolved and grew to carry a weight far beyond their carats; or, more bluntly, "gem exchanges could not be priced, even when they may have had certain calculable benefits," (12). These incalculable values, including religious, political, and status attributions, often far exceeded the 'traditional' value we imbue our commodities with.

Throughout the semester we have examined, for the most part, commodities with monetary value - focusing almost exclusively on the webs surrounding said value. As Carol points out, these authors also present much broader arguments; but most are still grounded in the traditional 'economy' of things. That said, I think it overbroad to state that these authors only preach value through culture. The point they make, at least to me, suggests that we look beyond the faces of nickels and dimes to analyze people in different ways. This work expands on said historiography by really delving into the cultural value of things alongside the aforementioned factors. That is to say, he shows that commodities can have multi-tiered value depending on the eye of the beholder. Really, this work brings the ideas proffered by Appadurai's volume - tying neatly to Davenport's essay on the Solomons and Geary's on medieval relics. And I think Lane's work takes these concepts to a different, more interesting level.