Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/95

 sum, to the jewellers. The prices given had a relation rather to the exigencies of the sellers, than to the value of the article; for the regular sale price did not on this account suffer the smallest abatement.

commerce of every kind has been, and ever will be, subject to fluctuation, yet that of diamonds is of all others least liable to it, so far as concerns what may be termed saleable stones, by which is meant those that are not remarkably large. Diamonds of considerable size are so rare as to render their value in many cases arbitrary. Few persons can afford to enter into competition in the purchase of first rate gems, and hence they will probably always continue to be slow of sale in Europe. The political state of the continent for the last twenty years, has been deemed peculiarly unfavorable for the disposal of such diamonds as demand for their purchase