And in black Africa, it disguised its South African origins under subsidiaries with names like Diamond Development Corporation and Mining Services, Inc. In Israel, it was known as 'The Syndicate.' In Europe, it was called the 'C.S.O.' - initials referring to the Central Selling Organization, which was an arm of the Diamond Trading Company. In London, it operated under the innocuous name of the Diamond Trading Company. As De Beers took control of all aspects of the world diamond trade, it assumed many forms. The instrument they created, in 1888, was called De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., incorporated in South Africa. The major investors in the diamond mines realized that they had no alternative but to merge their interests into a single entity that would be powerful enough to control production and perpetuate the illusion of scarcity of diamonds. The financiers feared that when new mines were developed in South Africa, diamonds would become at best only semiprecious gems. The British financiers who had organized the South African mines quickly realized that their investment was endangered diamonds had little intrinsic value-and their price depended almost entirely on their scarcity. Suddenly, the market was deluged with diamonds. In 1870, however, huge diamond mines were discovered near the Orange River, in South Africa, where diamonds were soon being scooped out by the ton. Until the late nineteenth century, diamonds were found only in a few riverbeds in India and in the jungles of Brazil, and the entire world production of gem diamonds amounted to a few pounds a year.

The diamond invention-the creation of the idea that diamonds are rare and valuable, and are essential signs of esteem-is a relatively recent development in the history of the diamond trade.

Pieces 1982 torrent