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96
SIR ERNEST OPPENHEIMER
in
Rhodesia, matters which in themselves required very careful handling.
The market situation, the volume of supplies and the level of costs
were all directly affected. It must also be remembered that to some
extent since the First World War, and to an increasing degree since the
depression years and World War II, the State has been playing an always
greater role, not merely as regards the level of taxation, but in the
fields of price control, social legislation and economic policy
generally, not to speak of monetary policy in the narrower sense and an
increasing degree of direct operation of enterprise in the so-called
'public sector'. It is, of course, the case that the environmental
factors have not always worked in the same direction, nor always in a
sense unfavourable to enterprise. Nevertheless, the fact remains that
the risks attaching to enterprise are much greater than they were in
more placid times, and this implies that the willingness to assume
risks —in other words, courage—has correspondingly increased in
importance.
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♦ VIII ♦
Though the immediate objective
which Anglo American Corporation set itself was the opening up of the
Far East Rand, it is clear that from the beginning Ernest Oppenheimer
set much wider objectives before himself and his colleagues. He was
associated with Dunkelsbuhler and Company and had a profound knowledge
of the diamond trade and industry. He himself set forth his ambitions
as regards the diamond industry in a letter to his American associates,
dated 1 November 1921. Summing up his previous correspondence and
conversations, and after referring to the East Rand situation, he went
on:
Further
to this, from the very start, I expressed the hope that besides gold,
we might create, step by step, a leading position in the diamond world,
thus concentrating by degrees in the corporation's hands the position
which the pioneers of the diamond industry (the late Cecil Rhodes,
Wernher, Beit, etc.) formerly occupied. Such a position is most
difficult to attain, requiring intimate knowledge of the diamond trade,
pluck and a great deal of patience, but, above all, the support of
powerful financial groups who would be prepared to play the part which
Messrs. Rothschilds played vis-a-vis the original leaders, at the time
of the De Beers amalgamation. It is quite evident to my mind that
eventually an amalgamation of the four big diamond producers (De Beers,
Premier, Jagersfontcin and Consolidated Diamonds)
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