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Colour of Paradise: The Emerald in the Age of Gunpowder Empires
Among the magnificent gems and jewels left behind by the great Islamic empires, emeralds stand out for their size and prominence. For the Mughals, Ottomans, and Safavids green was—as it remains for all Muslims—the color of Paradise, reserved for the Prophet Muhammad and his descendants. Tapping a wide range of sources, Kris Lane traces the complex web of global trading networks that funneled emeralds from backland South America to populous Asian capitals between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries. Lane reveals the bloody conquest wars and forced labor regimes that accompanied their production. It is a story of trade, but also of transformations—how members of profoundly different societies at opposite ends of the globe assigned value to a few thousand pounds of imperfectly shiny green rocks.
- GenresHistoryWorld History
280 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 29, 2019
"But emeralds were special for two reasons: what they signified and where they originated." 6
"How these deep-green gems, still regarded as the world's bets, got out fo South America and halfway around the world to Asia in the age of sail and gunpowder-who mined them and who traded them-are the main subjects of this book." 7
"These views have been lately modified by evidence that China and to a lesser extent India, absorbed the lion's share of American silver, which is to the world's money supply, until at least 1800." 8
"What the Chinese and South Asians had to offer the world-and it really was the world, not just Europe-were inexpensive, high-quality silk and cotton textiles. There were also dyes, drugs, spices, porcelain and sundry other things, including diamonds, rubies, sapphires and pearls, but textiles remained central for centuries." 8
"Solving the China problem, increasingly tied to England's addiction to tea rather than silk by the turn of the nineteenth century, required pushing opium so as not to send silver." 11
"Thus I argue that as emeralds left European merchant hands they took on new meanings and increasingly defied Western notions of commodity values as straightforward functions of weight, purity and relative scarcity. Imbued with religious significance and increasingly sucked into the realm of royal gift exchange, emeralds departed the world of ordinary commodities to become rarefied objects of sacred art." 12
"How these deep-green gems, still regarded as the world's bets, got out fo South America and halfway around the world to Asia in the age of sail and gunpowder-who mined them and who traded them-are the main subjects of this book." 7
"These views have been lately modified by evidence that China and to a lesser extent India, absorbed the lion's share of American silver, which is to the world's money supply, until at least 1800." 8
"What the Chinese and South Asians had to offer the world-and it really was the world, not just Europe-were inexpensive, high-quality silk and cotton textiles. There were also dyes, drugs, spices, porcelain and sundry other things, including diamonds, rubies, sapphires and pearls, but textiles remained central for centuries." 8
"Solving the China problem, increasingly tied to England's addiction to tea rather than silk by the turn of the nineteenth century, required pushing opium so as not to send silver." 11
"Thus I argue that as emeralds left European merchant hands they took on new meanings and increasingly defied Western notions of commodity values as straightforward functions of weight, purity and relative scarcity. Imbued with religious significance and increasingly sucked into the realm of royal gift exchange, emeralds departed the world of ordinary commodities to become rarefied objects of sacred art." 12
September 27, 2025
Fascinating book - I try and write something about all the books I have read but I cannot always comment usefully on those that too many years have elapsed since reading - this is one such book. But I assure you it stays in my memory as fascinating. I highly recommend it - you will be surprised at what you learn about emeralds and there history.
December 16, 2016
Excellent commodity chain history.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews