DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA 249
add
to the profits they already enjoyed as the largest stockholders in the
mines, the De Beers management created out of their number principally,
another body known as " The Diamond Syndicate," whose business it was
to take over the output of the mines under contract, and market the
diamonds. Having control of the diamond output of the world, the next
step was to get as much for the diamonds as the world would pay, and it
was decided that a company of men, in close touch and largely
interested in the mines on the one hand, and equally familiar with the
trade on the other, would be better able, by advising the mines what
their output should be, to keep the market supplied at advancing prices
without endangering the advance by a glut, than the mines could do it
by continuing to sell direct at Kimberley. The plan was carried out
with remarkable shrewdness and foresight. The contracts with the mines
permitted such large dividends to the stockholders that the terms of
the contract between the mines and the syndicate were not questioned,
and the stockholders were satisfied to receive whatever information the
management were willing to give them. The trade and the public were so
well manipulated by the syndicate, that every raise in the price of the
rough was accepted as the fiat of an irresponsible and supreme
authority. Until the beginning of 1908 this syndicate governed the
diamond industry of the world, not only fixing the price which buyers
should pay, but the quantities they must buy in a parcel. So absolutely
did they control the situation that a " sight," as an opportunity to
look at the parcels of rough from Africa was termed, came to be
regarded as a favor, and buyers almost begged for a
