I Break Three Times Into Diamonds 165
wherever they may be, or more probably became a part of the Hapsburg treasures.
It
was the Portuguese Jews from Lisbon who brought gem-cutting to England
and made Hatton Garden a world centre for the gem trade. For when
religious intolerance drove them from Portugal, as it had already
driven their brethren from Spain, the justly famed Lisbon diamond
cutters brought a lucrative new trade to the country which sheltered
them in their exile.
While
the luxury-loving and moneyed classes had to depend for diamonds upon
the meagre supplies from India, Brazil and other minor sources, large
stones—that is, stones over thirty carats—were so rare that a prominent
London jeweller (E. W. Streeter), who was as well informed on the
subject as anyone in Europe, was able to say that to the best of his
belief there were no more than a hundred such stones in the whole
world. Of these, in his opinion, fifty were in Europe and the rest
divided between Persia, India and Borneo.
But
the discovery of large diamond deposits in South Africa and the
intensive mining with up-to-date methods has changed all this, and
there are now a large number of considerable stones distributed over
the five continents. Yet the value of big gems has gone not down, but
up. A forecast of Streeter's, made without knowledge of the new factor
of South Africa, that the value of really large stones would be greatly
enhanced in the future, has been fully borne out. This is due to the
restrictions on production and the skilful marketing of diamonds by
the controllers of world stocks. It would, of course, benefit no-
