We live in an era of abundance. Things and food that our ancestors could see or try only once in their lives have now become as mundane as slippers. Introducing you ranking of items and products that were luxury in the past.
7. Pretzels
Most people will probably agree that pretzels are delicious. But once this snack was also very prestigious. In Sweden, in the 17th century, royal couples even used pretzels in their wedding ceremonies.
6. Black pepper
In medieval Europe, black pepper was one of the most precious products. Try to imagine that you found a box of pure gold filled with expensive truffles, and get an idea of how a person from the Middle Ages would feel if he found a small package of black pepper.
This spice came to Europe along the Great Silk Road from the South Indian state of Kerala. Until now, the phrase “dear pepper” and used at insanely high prices has not been forgotten in Holland.
5. Aluminum
Today it is a useful, but unremarkable metal that is used in various industries: from the creation of cars to the production of cans. In short, it is not gold, silver or even bronze. But it was not always so.
In 1884, the price of 28 grams of aluminum in the United States was about a dollar. So that the average American worker could afford to buy aluminum, he had to work for at least 10 hours in a row. For comparison: 28 g of silver currently costs about $ 17. For an American, this is a little over 2 hours of work.
4. Books
Is the top 7 things and products that were rare in past centuries could do without books. Now they are in every house, but how valuable were once considered? The story with Ptolemy III, the Egyptian king, will help answer the question. He strove to constantly replenish the Library of Alexandria - a huge center of learning, which kept many of the greatest texts of the ancient world. And once he asked Athens to borrow rare copies of the works of Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus. The Athenians demanded insurance - 15 silver talents. This is the same as in our days, Greece demanded that Egypt give several million dollars in exchange for a few books. The pledge was intended so that Ptolemy III could not afford to leave papyri.
However, the Egyptian ruler chose books, making a huge hole in the state budget. And the most amazing thing is that he sent copies of the books to the Athenians. For him, the most valuable were the originals.
3. Bed
Shakespeare wrote many comedies at the time, but his will contains a line that is ridiculous to modern people. It sounds like this: "I leave my second best bed and other furniture for my wife."
The modern equivalent of this phrase may sound like this: "I leave the second best car." If we are talking about the Lamborghini Veneno, then the heir will certainly not complain.
2. Broken cups and plates
When is a broken item more expensive than a whole? The answer is: when you live in Japan. In the 15th century, the shogun of Ashikaga Yoshimasa set Japanese masters to find an aesthetically pleasing way to fix broken ceramics. The technique they came up with was so amazing that broken and then restored items became more expensive than new ones. This ancient art is known as kintsugi and its main premise is to draw attention to the formation of cracks on the product by applying a special varnish mixed with gold, platinum or silver powder.
1. Tomatoes
Tops the list of rare and expensive things and products of the past Signor Tomato. It is used in almost all cuisines of the world. And to buy a product is not difficult. But in Europe, this vegetable crop came only in the 16th century. Although Italians and Spaniards immediately took the tomatoes “into circulation”, in the north of Europe they reacted to the novelty more wary and until the mid-18th century tomatoes were a rare and exotic sight there.
Imagine a man looking thoughtfully at a tomato and glorifying its beauty. Strange, right? And so did the Americans in the 18th century. They wrote poems about tomatoes, as now, we could write poems about roses.
