operations.
No exact statistics are obtainable of the production in the early
years, when no official returns from the mines were made. The late
Barney Barnato, who made a special study of the probable rate of
production, estimated the product from 1873 to 1880 as ranging annually
from a million to a million and a half carats. After 1880 there was a
considerable increase, and in 1883, when official returns were first
rendered, the quantity of diamonds produced was 2,319,234 carats. The
average value of this product was reckoned at 20s. 4-3/4d. giving a total of £2,359,466. In 1884 the product was 2,264,786 carats, valued at £2,562,623, showing an average of 13s. 2-3/4d. per
carat. This was the top notch in market value, for in the following
year, 1885, the diamonds produced amounted to 2,287,261 carats, with an
average value of only 19s. 5-3/4d. per carat. In 1886 the
production reached the high total of 3,047,639-3/4 carats, but the
demand increased in proportion, so that the average selling price was
fully is. higher per carat than during the previous year. In
1887 and 1888, through the increased facilities for production in De
Beers and Kimberley mines, the total output rose to 3,646,889 carats,
and 3,565,780^ carats successively. The average price during these two
years ranged from 21s. 6d. per carat to 22s. 1.5d. but
the market was flooded, and prices were falling perilously close to the
cost of production even in the richer mines. There was no assurance of
any far-sighted regulation of the output and market prices, and,
lacking this, diamond mining properties were commonly reckoned as
little better than gambling ventures. It has been clearly shown how
this disastrous condition was at once changed to stable assurance and
prosperity by the control of the new organization.
To
the shareholders in the mines, after this reorganization was effected,
the returns were unprecedented. This profit was largely due to the
complete control of production, systematic operation, and regulation of
the output; but the comparative showing was also greatly enhanced by
the shrewdness of the financiering in the organization, and the
withdrawal of inflation
