Speaking of the other day,
Someone asked the omniscient Lu Reader a question.
Why are diamonds so expensive!
What if I want to propose to my sister in the future?
Lu Yujun told him solemnly,
Dear, these are your delusions!
Diamonds are so expensive,
In fact, it is human greed!
In fact, to put it bluntly,
Diamond is just a kind of carbon crystal,
Diamond's cousin,
The guy named Graphite was also covered in carbon.
Graphite is easy to find,
A lot of pencils in the stationery store on the street,
The refill is made of graphite.
In fact, in the human world, such things are very common.
A lot of things, inexplicably endowed with value,
And then the value skyrocketed,
For example, pearls.
What exactly is a pearl?
It is actually a secretion of shellfish.
Impurities such as sand and small stones,
Into the body of the shellfish,
It feels uncomfortable,
Secrete a substance to wrap up the foreign body,
So it became a pearl.
Pearls look beautiful,
But in fact, its chemical composition is nothing special,
The main ingredient is calcium carbonate,
It's a kind of earth turtle that can no longer be earth turtle,
All kinds of bones that you throw away when you eat meat at noon,
Inside is a lot of calcium carbonate.
Although the chemical composition of pearls is slightly equal to chicken bones,
But it's still worth more than chicken bones.
This shows that human beings are creatures that look at faces.
They're going to be this pretty, shiny thing,
It has always been defenseless.
Wanderer Pearl
Humans have long loved pearls,
For thousands of years, there have been countless beautiful pearls,
But the king of the pearls, but there is no suspense,
It's called the "Rover Pearl."
Worth $11.8 million,
It is almost 81.23 million yuan.
It weighs 55.95 carats,
It has the most perfect water droplet shape.
It looks like it's very powerful.
But because 5 carats is equal to 1 gram,
Actually, in fact, it is calculated.
It weighs only 11.19 grams.
It's like a quail egg.
But in the pearl world,
It's a big one.
But just by being big,
Not worthy of its price,
Wanderer pearls have a long history,
Worn by many celebrities,
Even changed the course of world history,
As a result, prices are rising.
"Hello everyone, I'm Little Philip."
In the 16th century,
In a corner of the Spanish American colony
It was discovered,
It was then dedicated to King Philip II of Spain.
Spain was very strong at the time.
So Philip II was also very ambitious,
He took the Wanderer Pearl as a dowry,
Married Mary I, Queen of England,
It is also known as "Bloody Mary".
Look, she's wearing it on her chest
Mary I loved this pearl very much,
Wear it all day to show off,
This caused jealousy among her half-sister Elizabeth.
Recently
Mary I wore the Wanderer Pearl for only 4 years,
Just a life whining,
Elizabeth I took over her throne.
“(｡ ∀) No 嗨"
As a relic of his ex-wife,
The Wanderer Pearl was back in the hands of Philip II.
And this man took the Wanderer Pearl,
He proposed to his sister-in-law Elizabeth I.
But Elizabeth loves power more,
She didn't want someone to share the dominion of England with her.
Therefore, without hesitation, he refused his brother-in-law.
Elizabeth to that big pearl
Always remembering, always thinking in my heart,
And she sent her men out to sea to rob the ships of Spain,
Rummaged through the boxes and cabinets to find the Wanderer Pearl.
Pearls are naturally not found,
But it did infuriate Philip II,
Plus other factors such as religious aspects,
The brother-in-law gave a big blow to the sister-in-law,
However, Spain's "Armada" is not powerful,
Defeated by the British Navy,
Spain declined, and England rose.
Elizabeth didn't finally grab the Wanderer Pearl.
She also never married.
And this pearl is still in the hands of Philip II,
Always in Spain.
Joseph Bonaparte
But by the time of Napoleon, the French had occupied Spain,
Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte became King of Spain,
But a few years later when the French were defeated,
They took the Wanderer Pearl with them.
Thus began its wandering career.
After Joseph's death,
Wanderer pearls as a legacy,
Transferred to his nephew Napoleon III,
Napoleon III sold the pearl to the Duke of Abocan in England,
The Rover Pearl is finally back in England.
Pearl of a female star
By 1969, it was auctioned off.
Hollywood star Richard Burton
Bought it for $350,000,
As a Valentine's Day gift,
To his wife,
The famous Elizabeth Taylor.
Elizabeth taylor
Taylor took it to the famous Cartier Company for redesign,
Cartier made a necklace out of it,
It's full of precious diamonds and gemstones,
But it's just a foil.
As a person who really likes to show off his jewelry,
Taylor always likes to walk around wearing this necklace,
And many movies were made with it.
Wore the "Rover" pearl while starring in the movie "Anne's Thousand Days"
After Taylor's death,
The Rover Pearl was auctioned off as her collection.
For the foreseeable future,
The Wanderer Pearl will continue to wander,
And I don't know how many more ladies will hang around their necks.
The tortuous history and high price of the Wanderer Pearl,
It reflects human greed,
And human judgments about the value of different items.
Can you imagine diamonds once being worthless?
You can imagine a tulip ball that you can buy at a flower market.
Was it ever worth a fortune?
Because we have desires,
And desire changes the world.
Edited | Liangshan
Typography | Liangshan
Reading on the road: PhDs from world-famous universities read a good book in 30 minutes.