market
has its ups and downs like any other. We probably have thin times ahead
as well as behind us; that's what we have controls for. That's why from
our point of view the monopoly is a good thing. The public doesn't like
the word 'monopoly.' No more do I like it when it's applied to anything
that's necessary, such as food, or clothing, or anything else
utilitarian, but a diamond's not food or wool. A diamond—I'm discussing
the gem, of course, not industrials—it's the essence of luxury. That's
its appeal. If it became valueless, the dealers would be the first to
complain—those same dealers who criticize us for controlling the
market. Where would they be if the value fluctuated? I'll tell you.
Right back where they were near the beginning, before the amalgamation,
when in the price war between Rhodes and Barney Barnato the price of
top-quality goods went down to ten shillings a carat, and every
outgoing vehicle from Kimber-ley was full of people running away from
the mines."
He
was expressing a philosophy that applies to a lot of other commodities
that are dug up from the ground, though diamonds are indeed, as he
pointed out, a rather special thing even among minerals. The diamond
mines of South Africa in their early days could hardly have been called
typical of mines in general, though there were some points the industry
had in common with other new mineral strikes. There was the familiar
program: the discovery, the rush, the reign of the little man, and in
the end, by the inexorable logic of technology and finance, the
absorption of the little man by the big man, or, in this case, by the
two big men—not that the little man didn't resist. Kimberley laws were
passed to prevent monopoly, but they weren't applied for very long. No
law could halt the march of natural disaster; neither could any action
taken by individ-
