History Of The De Beers Diamond Company

The De Beers Diamond Company is well known, internationally based diamond trading and mining company. It has guarded the diamond flow in to the United States market for past several decades. Conceivably, a more suitable title for De Beers would be cartel as it started as groups of producers whose objective was to control supply of diamonds, fix prices and limit competition, and the groups actually did what it is decided at the very beginning.

The name “De Beers” originated with two Afrikaner farmers Johannes Nicholas de Beers and Diederik Arnoldus De Beers. These two brothers found diamonds on their farm and it was hard for them to protect these diamonds from the invasion of mad diamond seekers. They decided to sale the farm and land. The land consisted of two large mines: Kimberly and De Beers.

As two entities appeared on the top for acquiring the land, two colossal battles flamed in the next few years. The entities fought for acquiring the land included the prospective investors, Charles Rudd and Cecil Rhodes and the mining company Barnato. After acquiring the De Beers mine, they wanted Kimberly mine as well. The transaction started, each of potential buyers was ferociously involved and was buying stock in the “Kimberly Central”. Finally Rudd and Rhodes won the battle and pushed Barnato to agree to a merger with De Beers.

In its entire history, De Beers has been enclosed with the different contentions from all sides. An evident cartel, the Diamond industry was monopolized by the group for decades and the group remain the powerful players in the diamond industry. The companies involved in the cartel, promoted the mythology related to diamonds (Hart, 2001), hype them as highly valuable and rare. Actually, at one point in the ...

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...een surrounded by contention from all sides. An obvious cartel, they monopolized the diamond industry for decades and remain a powerful player in the diamond industry. De Beers flourished and grew over the years, establishing itself as an international diamond cartel that was highly successful, ruthless against its competitors, and king in the world of diamonds. With a wealth of diamonds at its fingertips, the possibilities were endless. They encouraged the mythology surrounding diamonds, touting them as rare and highly valuable. With diamond values in the billions, the company still kept a stronghold on its diamonds and touted them as rarities. Diamonds are not rare and the only reason they have been so is because of De Beers. Their strict regulation of diamonds has supported ridiculously high prices and an artificially inflated value that remains to this day.