42
SIR ERNEST OPPENHEIMER
the
end of 1871 five mines had been discovered and were in the process of
exploitation: in order of date of discovery, Bultfontein, Dutoitspan,
the 'Old Rush' (De Beers), next, richest and most exciting prospect of
all, the 'New Rush' (Kimberley); and finally, some 100 miles away, was
Jagersfontein, which had been discovered in August 1870.
♦ II ♦
Contemporary
opinion in South Africa was, of course, dazzled by the prospects which
the new fields opened up. Every adventurous young man in the frontier
towns and at the coastal ports wished to abandon his occupation and
scrape together enough money to get to the diggings to make his
fortune, and this internal migration was serious enough to create a
temporary labour shortage, even embarrassing the banks and other
employers of clerical labour. But the 'multiplier effects' of the new
discoveries far outweighed any such temporary inconveniences. The
discoveries stimulated the demand for agricultural produce; gave
employment on a large scale to 'transport riders' and thus created an
alternative occupation for the farming population; stimulated the
demand for cattle for transport purposes, and for wagons and for
equipment generally. A new industry arose—the conveyance of passengers
on a large scale. A large new demand for Native labour arose. The
profits of merchants and retailers alike, both in the old coastal
cities and in the embryo towns which grew up round the 'diggings' were
greatly enhanced. The export of diamonds gave South Africa a large new
supply of foreign exchange to meet the growing demand for imports;
improved shipping facilities for goods and for men became possible.
Finally, foreign capital came with the eager searchers for profit—how
large the flow was cannot, of course, be known, but it must have been
considerable in relation to the then circumstances.
What
was not fully realized at the time (except in diamond circles) was the
quite revolutionary effect these discoveries were to have on the world
market for diamonds. Apart from an insignificant production in India
and in Borneo (which probably did not come on to the world market at
all) the market in diamonds consisted, apart from the resale of cut
stones, of the current production from Brazil; just before the
discovery of diamonds in South Africa, one of the leading experts of
the time estimated that output at £1,888,000 for the years 1861-7, an
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