MOORISH KING WITH EMERALDS

Taxed or deemed contraband, New Granada’s emeralds were always stowed among better known commodities such as gold or pearls, sometimes sewn into a priest’s robe or a merchant’s frock coat for security. In Cartagena, emeralds pooled among New Christian and other global traders, who sent them on to wholesale gem markets in Seville, Lisbon and eventually Amsterdam and London. We know about them thanks to a mix of Inquisition and notary records. Some raw emeralds found their way into European curiosity cabinets. Gemstones are not like other commodities, and gem traders inadvertently saturated European markets by the end of the 16th century, driving prices downward. This forced emerald handlers to search for new and wealthy customers. It was precisely at this time that Europeans were expanding trade with the Near and Far East, including territories claimed by the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires.