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44 A Book of Precious Stones
never
succeeded in monopolising it, even in Eu-rope. Max Bauer states in his
book, completed in 1896, that the diamond-cutting industry in Amsterdam
comprised seventy establishments equipped with modern appliances with
steam as motive-power; the industry gave employment to twelve thousand
persons; one establishment had four hundred and fifty grinding machines
and about one thousand employees and in all there were in the diamond
city about seven thousand grinding machines (skaifs) in
operation. American diamond buyers, or jewellers whose interest in
that which pertains to their business leads them to visit Amsterdam,
the diamond city, while abroad, usually come via Cologne. Amsterdam's principal hotel is a rendezvous for diamond importers.
A
financial transaction is said to have had much to do with enriching
Amsterdam through locating there the centre of the diamond-cutting and
polishing industry and making it one of the world's two greatest
diamond markets; some rough diamonds deposited in an Amsterdam bank
centuries ago as collateral for a loan were ordered, by the bank
officials, to be cut. One of the reasons why diamond-cutting as an
industry is firmly established in Europe is that
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