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58
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THE DIAMOND
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Syndicate from July, 1907, to February, 1908, expires in March next."
It
is evident from the facts, that the Syndicate was not as supposed, a
bulwark established solely to protect the mines and the trade from the
encroachment of variable conditions and the economic principles and
action of the laws of supply and demand which might threaten the
stability of price, but a Syndicate of private interests formed out of
the De Beers management for a very profitable handling of the diamonds
after the mines had made one big profit for the stockholders. It is
evident also that the trade can expect no support from the Syndicate
except when it is profitable to the Syndicate to give it.
On
March 31, 1908, the Premier mine, being dissatisfied with the share
given it in the sales (30 per cent.), withdrew from the syndicate
arrangement, and became a strong competitor with the hitherto
invincible dictator of the diamond market.
As
the Premier is the largest of all the mines, in order to realize its
importance as a factor in the problem now to be solved, of how further
to hold a price for a thing which has no relation whatever to the cost
of production and the natural adjustments of supply and demand, a few
facts regarding it will not be out of place. With an incalculable
supply of diamond ground, it is erecting a plant which will be in
operation in the early part of 1909, capable of treating 40,000 loads a
day. The average yield in 1907 was 0.289 carat per load. Reckoning on
that basis, the yield would be nearly three and one-half million carats
of diamonds in a year.
In addition to this, the Voorspoed, a new mine not
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