The 21st century model of the diamond industry must be considered different from the 20th century model of the diamond industry. This is because there was a single company that monopolized the entire diamond industry.
Throughout the 20th century, the diamond industry was monopolized by De Beer, who has been considered by some to have used many underhanded methods to achieve and maintain this monopoly in the diamond industry.
It has been suggested that the company used various tactics to take control of the market, for example, they would buy diamond reserves that came from other competitors and then manipulate prices through the old supply and demand.
Another clandestine method used was to flood the market with similar products from producers who refuse to join their monopoly.
At the time, the family of companies employed around 20,000 employers on five continents in different parts of the world.
The family of companies was involved in all aspects of the diamond industry, from diamond mining to the sale of rough diamonds, distribution and production, as well as marketing and jewelry manufacturing.
The De Beer family is credited with selling around 40% of the world’s rough diamonds, which came from their own mines or from their joint ventures with various governments.
It may be worth noting here for those who don’t know, that it is not the name of a person, but rather the name of the company that was founded by Cecil Rhodes in 1888 and was financed by Lord Nathan Rothschild of the Rothschild family.
Cecil Rhodes founded a company in 1871 during the gold rush days selling water pumps to miners. This took place in South Africa, where the largest diamond at 83.5 carats was found in Kimberly.
Using the proceeds from this operation, he invested wisely in buying small-scale diamond mining concessions and in another bold move.
He secured further Rothschild funding for massive expansion and De Beer was created in 1888 with the merger of Cecil Rhodes and Barney Banarto, who subsequently became the owners of all mineral production in South Africa.
Cecil Rhodes was afraid that one day someone would find another diamond mine and that was exactly what happened, he entered the Cullinan mine, which was discovered in 1902 and was De Beer’s main competitor and later the cause of the end of the diamond monopoly. De Beers.
The mine owner declined an invitation to join the monopoly, instead choosing to do business with Bernard and Ernest Oppenheimer, dealing another blow to the De Beer cartel.
The Cullinan mine was so successful that they are credited with finding the second largest diamond ever found, The Cullinan Diamond, and their production soon equaled that of De Beers.
Business being that way, however, De Beer soon obtained ownership of The Cullinan mining industry sometime during World War I.
In 1902, after the death of Cecil Rhodes, the De Beer company controlled more than 90% of the world’s diamond production.
In 2000, a number of diamond producers in places like Australia, Canada, and Russia decided they had had enough of De Beer and would seek to distribute their diamonds outside of the De Beer cartel. It was this single act that saw the end of De Beer’s monopoly.