Diamond Industry, de Beers

Diamond Industry. De Beers. In the beginning of 1870s, the Afrikaner brothers, J. N. de Beer and D. A. de Beer discovered diamonds on their farm and unable to deal with the effort of protecting the farm from the diamond seekers, they sold the land to the diamond traders. Today, the name De Beers represents the world’s largest diamond company, which has a presence in 25 countries. The powerful and productive epoch of diamonds began with the establishment of this company. Who knows what role a diamond would play in people’s lives if not for its monopolization by this company. It was formed as a group of diamond producers whose goal was to fix prices, control supply and limit competition, and this is exactly what De Beers has done historically with the trade of diamonds. If the goals didn’t succeed, the diamond’s role in our life would be little. First of all, the diamonds are not as rare as people think they are. Up until the late nineteenth century, a diamond was rare stone. They were found only in a few river beds in India and the jungles Brazil, and the entire world production amounted to only a few pounds a year. In 1870, however, there was a radical change: diamond pipes were discovered near the Orange River in South Africa. Now, rather than finding by chance occasional diamond in a river, diamonds could be scooped out of these mines in mass quantity. Suddenly, the market was deluged with this flood of diamonds, and the British organizers of the South African mines quickly realized that their investment was endangered because the price of diamonds depends entirely on their scarcity. They realized that they had no alternative but to merge their interests into a single entity that would be powerful enough to control the mine’s production and, perpetuate the scarcity and illusion of diamonds. This plan has lasted for over one hundred years, and a very small group has managed to expand the control of this jewel over not only Africa but also Asia and South

References: Encyclopedia Wikipedia. (2007). Retrieved February 2, 2007, from