gems, Ceylon, Sri Lanka, trade, history

Jayasuriya surveys the history of Ceylon’s foreign trade from antiquity to the mid-twentieth century, emphasizing the island’s geographical position as an entrepôt between the Mediterranean world, Arabia, India, Southeast Asia and China. Gems and pearls figure prominently among Ceylon’s early exports: classical accounts describe the island as producing gold, gems, pearls and precious stones, while the Periplus records exports of pearls and gems. Arab writers likewise mention Ceylon’s spices, gems and pearls, and Ibn Battuta records precious stones among the products he encountered there. Chinese sources indicate that Ceylon gems were in great demand and that Chinese merchants brought copper, silks, porcelain and enamelware, with copper frequently used to purchase gems. Jayasuriya notes that the island’s inhabitants were themselves fond of jewelry and suggests that some of the gold and silver received through foreign trade was made into ornaments for royalty and nobility. He traces Ceylon’s changing commercial relationships through Arab, Portuguese, Dutch and British dominance, showing how its role gradually shifted from an international entrepôt noted for gems, pearls and luxury goods toward a colonial export economy dominated by cinnamon and later coffee, tea, rubber and coconut.