The diamond in ancient India - Diamantschleiferei Michael Bonke

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In 1872, a buyer from London called “Anton Dinkelsbuhler” came along with many others. He wasoperating on behalf of the company “Mosenthals”. What his position in this company was, and whatthe financial arrangements for his actions were, was never very clear. But he gradually becamethe most important local buyer. Dealing with diamond buyers in diamond mining regions is ascientific art in itself. It is completely uncontrollable and often, the buyer, who is only an employeeof the purchasing company, makes more money than the company he works for. This is becausethe transactions only work with cash and whether the buyer passes on the same cheap pricesthat he has negotiated to his company or keeps a profit margin for himself cannot be controlled.Anyway, the respectable Mr. Dinkelsbuhler remained in South Africa for four continuous yearsbefore making his first trip to London by ship. According to some claims, he spent over a millionpounds for diamonds in these four years. Ultimately, there was also a lawsuit against him forbuying an unlawfully acquired diamond. When he returned to England, he was one of the richestmen in the diamond sector and opened his own diamond company in London.After succeeding in reconciling the diamond prospectors and uniting them in a single miningcompany and finally having the control of all diamond prospecting activities in South Africa underthe De Beers Consolidated Mines, Cecil Rhodes now pulled off a second coup that completedthe power of the De Beers Company. In the same year, he founded the “Diamond Syndicate” inKimberley, which was the only organisation that sold the diamonds of the De Beers Company.This organisation in turn signed an agreement with the buyer Anton Dinkelsbuhler, who now tookover a large share of the De Beers diamonds and sold them in London.Thus, two activities were monopolised: the prospecting of diamonds and the sale of thesediamonds. Thus, from 1887 onwards, the worldwide price of diamonds was not a free marketprice anymore. The De Beers Consolidated Mines and the Kimberley Diamond Syndicateinterrelatedly controlled the extraction and sale of diamonds, and thus their price. If there weredifficulties in the sale, De Beers withheld the diamonds; if the market demanded more stones, itincreased the sale.However, what aggravated the situation was that more and more diamond deposits werediscovered. And De Beers was compelled to bring more and more mines under its control.In 1902, the power of the De Beers Consolidated Mines began to falter again. A new diamondmine in South Africa, the “Cullinan” mine stubbornly refused to work together with De Beers andinsisted on independently marketing its diamonds. The mine soon becomes so successful thatit yielded more diamonds than all other South African mines put together. In 1905, the famousCullinan diamond was discovered; a 3106 carat rough diamond, of excellent colour and purity.There was a threat of the power of the De Beers Consolidated Mines and the Diamond Syndicatebeing crushed.
But then, an initially completely insignificant newcomer, whom nobody had expected and whomnobody trusted and hardly anyone could bear, made his appearance: Ernst Oppenheimer. AGerman immigrant to South Africa, who was the eighth child of his parents and born in Friedheimin 1880 He had good contacts in the worldwide diamond business because of his family, andsurpassed all others as far as intelligence and business acumen were concerned: Cecil Rhodes,Anton Dinkelsbuhler, the directors of the De Beers Consolidated Mines and the reputable dealersthat were united in the Kimberley Diamond Syndicate.Two of Ernst Oppenheimer’s 4 older brothers were employed in the diamond business and hisyounger brother Luis was a partner in Anton Dinkelsbuhler’s company. Moreover, there werefamilial ties with Dinkelsbuhler: one of Ernst Oppenheimer’s cousins was married to a cousin ofAnton Dinkelsbuhler.When Ernst Oppenheimer travelled to South Africa in 1902, he came as a representative of thefirm Dinkelsbuhler. He purchased diamonds, not only from the Diamond Syndicate in Kimberley,but also from the new Cullinan mine in particular. Oppenheimer started on a very small scale inSouth Africa and began his career as an insignificant office employee. However, he had sufficientcontacts because of his oldest brother Bernhard and his brother Luis, who was 10 years younger;he eventually began to earn a reputation in not just the diamond but also the gold business.Although he entered the scene as a small scale employee, he made a huge amount of money ina short span of time and finally founded the “Anglo American Corporation of South Africa”, whichhad a significant holding in South Africa’s gold mining. However, his true ambition was alwaysto procure a seat in the bank of directors of the De Beers Mining Corporation. But the De Beersdirectors did not trust him, viewed him as a strange nouveau riche and blocked his advancementinto the board of directors for several decades.But Ernst Oppenheimer secretly purchased all the shares of the De Beers Consolidated Minesthat were available for sale and eventually obtained a majority of the De Beers shares. Shortlythereafter, Ernst Oppenheimer had purchased all the shares of the De Beers Consolidated Minesand thus made the company into a private concern belonging to the Oppenheimer family.In 1926, he made further progress and founded the “Central Selling Organisation”, i.e. the CSO,in London. From then onwards, the South African diamonds were only sold in London and that,ten times in the year to a small number of “sightholders”.Even today, a good 80 years later, the business still runs as it did at that time. All concessionaires,the so-called “sightholders” meet once a month in London and take their “box”. The number ofsightholders is strictly limited. At present, it is approximately forty. Every sightholder has to paya specific amount for his/her box, which does not vary, for e.g. 35 million dollars.
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The diamond in ancient India - Diamantschleiferei Michael Bonke

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