during
the last months of 1889; and as mining must now be carried to greater
depths, involving a higher cost, the price is likely to be maintained,
if not advanced.
Imports of Diamonds into the United States.—From
the customs import-lists, after deducting the approximate value of cut
stones other than the diamond, we find that import duty was paid on
about $120,000,000 worth of cut diamonds in the last twenty-four years,
of which $90,000,000 worth were imported during the last twelve years.
I n 1868 $ 1,000,000 worth were imported, and about $1,200,000 worth in
1867, but about $11,000,000 in 1888, and the same amount in 1889, or
ten times as many in the latter year as twenty years previous, showing
the increase of wealth and the great popularity of the diamond among
Americans, the previous figures representing the import prices,
exclusive of mounting or dealers' profits. A single firm at present
sells yearly more than the annual import of 1867.
Diamond
dust worth $464,905 has been imported since 1878, $289,430 worth from
1868 to 1878, and in 1869 to 1871 only $228 worth ; but the first year
after the opening of the Kimberley Mines, $80,707 worth was imported,
showing one of the great benefits the arts received from the opening of
the great South African diamond mines.
In
1878 the importations of uncut diamonds amounted to $63,270, in 1887 to
$262,357, showing that four times as many diamonds were cut in 1887 as
in 1878, though the importations were falling off. The total for the
decade was $2,728,214, while in 1883 there were imported $443,996
worth, in 1888 $322,356 worth, and in 1889 $191,341. The falling off in
importation is partly because in the years since 1882 a number of
jewelers, who had opened diamond-cutting establishments, either gave up
or sold that branch of business ; for, in spite of the protective duty
of 10 per cent, on cut stones, cutting cannot be profitably carried on
unless on a scale large enough to enable a partner to reside in London,
the great market for rough diamonds, in order to take advantage of
every fluctuation in the market, and purchase large parcels, to be cut
immediately and converted into cash as fast as they are sold.
Diamond-Cutting.—This industry is now carried on in the
