The star pagoda is used in calculating the values. This small gold coin was current in south India in the early part of the last century. In the computations it is considered to be worth three and a half rupees, although its intrinsic value as a gold coin is about six rupees.
It is considered probable that the London syndicate,[[400]] which has lately leased the Ceylon pearl fisheries for a period of twenty years, will do away with the complicated calculations employed for so many generations, surviving all changes of administration, Portuguese, Dutch, and British. This is only one of the many instances showing the tendency of the British Government to abolish time-honored usages in India, without regard to the wishes of its population; and, unimportant as many of these changes may seem to us, they all serve to foster a spirit of discontent that may lead to serious trouble. This conduct on the part of Great Britain is all the stranger in view of the stubborn opposition of that country to the adoption of the scientific and logical metric system.
In Bombay, the weight of pearls in tanks is made the basis of their valuation; the tank equals 24 ratti or about 72 grains troy. The square of the number of tanks is multiplied by 330 and the quotient divided by the number of pearls; this gives the number of chevvǔs, or chows, as they are sometimes called, and the market price of the chevvǔs for a given class of pearls shows their value. If, for instance, we have 56 pearls of a certain quality, weighing 5 tanks, and the chevvǔs of these pearls is worth 14 rupees, the sum would be as follows:
| 5 × 5 × 330 × 14 | |
| = 2062.5 rupees, or about $825. | |
| 56 |
In this case, as in the other system of weighing which we have mentioned, the chevvǔs is only a nominal weight; but there is in India a real weight unit which bears this name.[[401]]
The high esteem in which the pearl was held by the Hindus is well illustrated by the following statement from an old treatise on gems: “A pearl weighing two kalan̄jas (about 180 grains) should not be worn even by kings. It is for the gods, it is without equal.”[[402]]
An interesting account of a great savant’s experience, in the early part of the sixteenth century, regarding the value of pearls, is given by Guillaume Budé[[403]] (1467–1540), the celebrated French Hellenist who lived during the reign of Francis I and who is regarded as the founder of the College de France. In his work entitled “De Asse,” he states that he once inquired of a gem dealer in Paris whether the latter could recall the weight of some remarkable pearl which had passed through his hands. The dealer replied that he had seen one weighing 30 carats (120 grains), whereupon another gem dealer, who was present, remarked that he had in his possession one of 40 carats (160 grains). This pearl was sold a few days later for 3000 gold crowns ($6750). On another occasion Budé was told that a pearl of exquisite beauty weighing 30 carats, had been sold to the Duchesse de Bourbon, daughter of Louis XI of France, for the sum of 4000 gold crowns ($9000).
In regard to the manner of computing the value of pearls Budé writes: “I think the ratio of these prices can be calculated. When I asked a gem dealer what was the value of a pearl of four carats [sixteen grains], according to the formula, he replied: ‘I have seen such a pearl sell for thirty gold crowns [$67.50].’ Whereupon I asked: ‘How much would you estimate one weighing eight carats [thirty-two grains]?’ ‘At least two hundred gold crowns [$450],’ he answered; and as I continued to ply him with questions, gradually increasing the weight, he responded in such a way that I could understand that the increase of the price bore not a numerical, but a proportional relation to the weight; so that the above mentioned eight-carat pearl, having double the weight of a four-carat pearl, was valued at seven times as much. The same was true of a pearl weighing twelve carats, twenty carats, and so on; the price augmenting by a greater and greater increment as the weight increased.”
In the “Coronae Gemma Noblissima” of Wilhelmus Eo (1621, pp. 32, 33), an instance is given of the rapid changes that are possible in the worth of a pearl. A large and beautiful pearl was brought to Nuremberg by a merchant who had paid 500 florins for it; he soon found a purchaser among the merchants there, who was willing to pay him 800 florins. This latter merchant in his turn disposed of his gem for 1000 florins, and shortly after it again changed hands twice, the first time at an advance of 200 florins and the second at an advance of 300 florins. All this happened within a few days. The writer tells us that the last purchaser, who paid 1500 florins for the pearl, took it with him to Venice “where the wealthy dames wear a great treasure of beautiful pearls as necklaces upon their bare skin, and he will not have lost anything on his pearl there.”
In 1884, Mr. Edwin Streeter was asked by a member of a London syndicate to proceed to the East, to value a large quantity of jewels, as a heavy sum of money was about to be advanced to a certain Power, to provide the sinews of war. On his way he was requested to stop at one of the principal towns in Germany to purchase some jewels which had been valued for probate but were not easy of sale in that market. The valuation paper was shown to him, and after examining the ornaments, he agreed to take them at the prices named. Among them was an old gold brooch of Russian manufacture, valued at £4; in the center of this brooch was what appeared to be a piece of hematite, but was in reality a fine, round, black pearl, weighing 77 grains. The color had faded from exposure to the sun. This pearl was brought to London, and the outer layer was taken off, when a perfect black pearl of 67 grains was uncovered. This was sold to a manufacturing jeweler in London for £400; but, having heard that in Paris there was a pearl that would exactly match it, Mr. Streeter bought it back again for £600, and then sold it at a large profit to one of the Paris crown jewelers, who, in his turn, sold the pair to a rich iron merchant for 50,000 francs (£2000 or $10,000). Since then the sum of 100,000 francs (£4000 or $20,000) has been refused for this pair of matchless black pearls. At present values they may be worth double this sum.