T272 Gemological Research in the Twenty-First Century—Gem Minerals and Localities (Posters)

Wednesday, 12 October 2022
2:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Exhibit Hall F

THE GLOBAL TRADE ROUTES AND LOCALITIES OF GEMSTONES ACCORDING TO SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ARMENIAN SOURCES

Paper number: T272-3
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Authors

Abstract

The locations of the most active modern gem deposits are well documented among geologists and professionals in the gem trade. The same is true for the modern commercial networks of circulation of diamonds and gems from the mines, to the cutting, polishing, and production centers across the globe, to the hands of the consumers. The commercial map of the global trade routes and gem localities, however, has changed significantly over the past few centuries. Despite this, the research into the history of gem trade routes and their localities remains insufficient due to the scarcity of archival material.

Gemstones were some of the most lucrative global commodities of the early modern period (∼1500-1800 AD) and provided a vital link between the production or mining centers in the Mughal Empire, South and Southeast Asia, and the consumption centers in Europe. We aim at filling in the gap in the knowledge of historically significant gem trading and consumption hubs in the early modern period. By using the information provided in an unpublished, never studied before 18th century manuscript, written by an Armenian gem merchant in India, as well as other archival sources, we map the global gem trade routes frequented by the commercial networks of long-distance Asian merchants and the European East India Companies of the time.

This manuscript sheds light on rare details of the popular gem commodities of the 18th c. in the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean and beyond, their localities, prices and consumer preferences based on color and shape. According to our sources, the most popular gems in the first half of the 18th c. included Indian diamonds, Southeast Asian rubies and spinels, Colombian emeralds, Sri Lankan pearls, sapphires, turquoise, lapis lazuli, and others. These were bought and sold by long-distance merchants at the global markets of Surat, Madras (Chennai), Bombay (Mumbai), Basra, and transported to London and Antwerp for cutting and polishing. Their journey then continued to consumption centers in Venice, and Livorno (Tuscany), where they were sold to European royalty and the wider public. We also demonstrate the West to East trade routes that accommodated the transfer of gems, including the movement of Mediterranean coral to the Indian subcontinent, an area of gem trade that is commonly neglected in historiographical research.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 54, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2022AM-382647

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