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So it was expensive to make and worth the expense involved because of it's unusual durability. It wasn't some artificial scarcity, like modern day diamonds, nor
by DoreenMichele 5y ago
So it was expensive to make and worth the expense involved because of it's unusual durability. It wasn't some artificial scarcity, like modern day diamonds, nor "valuable" merely because it was scarce.
Thank you for that. That's a wonderful bit of trivia.
- toxik 5y agoWell, “worth it” is a stretch - I think they almost put the snail to extinction from needing so much of it.
- DoreenMichele 5y agoI meant financially. People have been doing terrible environmental damage to indulge themselves for eons. We aren't exactly the brightest bulb in the box about some things.
- routerl 5y agoIsn't it just? I like that it wasn't enough for it to be rare (which it was) and laborious to produce (which it was), but also that it had unusual and very practical properties. It seems as if today, mainly due to marketing, luxury goods get away with just being rare (even if artificially), or just being laborious to produce (e.g. the old (false) notion that "a Rolls Royce is completely hand-made").