THE WAR YEARS AND AFTER 315
well
as upon the intrinsic advantages of one or the other material for the
various uses to which they can be put. What is equally, if not more
important, is that both 'gem stones' and 'industrials' are a joint
product', to use the technical economic phrase, of diamond mining;
though conditions vary as between mine and mine, a general extension of
diamond mining involves an increasing output of both gem stones and
'industrials'. In fact, the output of products suitable for industrial
purposes greatly exceeds the output of the superior grades of gem
stones—this is particularly so in the case of the output of the Congo
and West African fields and also in the case of the Premier (Transvaal)
Mine. It follows that unless the demand for industrial purposes
increases as the general output of the mines increases, the diamond
industry is faced with the problem of a progressive accumulation of
some classes of goods with a resultant decline in the over-all
profitability of mining. Periods of good trade for gem stones will
alleviate the problem, since the income of the producers from that
source improves: periods of bad trade aggravate it both directly and
indirectly, but the only way of avoiding a permanent imbalance is to extend the market for industrials. That was
the problem which faced the diamond industry in the inter-war period.
Inevitably, it was a problem that concerned Ernest Oppenheimer not only
as the leader of the industry and chairman of die Diamond Corporation,
but because of the interests of De Beers in the Premier (Transvaal)
Mine, and of the Anglo American Investment Trust in those 'outside
producers' whose prosperity was so closely bound up with finding a
solution. It was also a problem that greatly affected the interests of
his brother Otto Oppenheimer, whose relations with the Belgian
producers were particularly close.
In
the early twenties, the Diamond Syndicate had sold 'common goods' to an
Antwerp syndicate which included the two firms mentioned in the next
sentence. In 1926 Anton Dunkelsbuhler and Company sold f 1,500,000
of'common goods' to Messrs. L. M. van Moppes and Sons, one of the two
firms (the other was Messrs. J. K. Smit and Sons) which had built up a
large business not only as dealers in industrials but also as
manufacturers of diamond tools. Later, when the Diamond Corporation had
been created, Otto Oppenheimer was to act as an intermediary between
that organization and the industrial diamond market, through companies
(International Diamonds Limited, Diamond Realization Company,
Amalgamated Development Company)3 created specifically for that purpose. The world
3
The formation of these companies enabled Otto Oppenheimer to obtain
some finance from 'houses' not otherwise directly concerned with the
diamond industry.
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