The Jewels in Ground: The Geopolitics of Knowledge in the Early Modern Eurasian Gem Trade

Description

The Geological Turn in Asia: Empires, Geological Knowledge, and Geological AgenciesGems’ economic value and highly specific geographical locations made them the subject of considerable investigation among natural philosophers in Europe, a region with few sources of precious stones. New networks created by the Dutch and English East India Companies established direct connections between European consumers and the existing Indian Ocean gem trade for the first time, and throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European knowledge of precious minerals depended on colonial trade in Asia. I argue that the study of gems, a formative topic for the early modern earth sciences in Europe, both depended on embodied knowledge and labor of miners in South and Southeast Asia and was limited by local sovereigns’ regional control over gem deposits. In contrast to latercolonial efforts to map natural resources in the nineteenth century, when regional territorial sovereignty and control over mineral resources had been significantly weakened, European colonial actors in the early modern period were limited in what they could know about precious stones.

Period	4 Sept 2025
Event title	The Geological Turn in Asia: Empires, Geological Knowledge, and Geological Agencies
Event type	Seminar/Workshop
Location	Singapore, SingaporeShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International