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Previous article FreeBack CoverPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreAccording to the character Sagredo in the Dialogues by Galileo Galilei:What greater stupidity can be imagined than that of calling jewels, silver and gold “precious,” and earth and soil “base”? People who do this ought to remember that if there were as great a scarcity of soil as jewels or precious metals, there would not be a prince who would not spend a bushel of diamonds and rubies and a cartload of gold just to have enough earth to plant a jasmine in a little pot, or to sow an orange seed and watch it sprout, grow, and produce its handsome leaves, its fragrant flowers and fine fruit. It is scarcity and plenty that make the vulgar take things to be precious or worthless; they call a diamond very beautiful because it is like pure water, and then would not exchange one for ten barrels of water.[Dava Sobel, Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love (London: Fourth Estate, 1999), p. 152](Suggested by Stephen Jenkins)Originally printed on the February 2003 (vol. 111, no. 1) back cover Previous article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Political Economy Volume 131, Number 3March 2023 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/725075 © 2023 The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.