362 



The Review of Reviews. 



October 1. 1906. 



THE GREAT AMALGAMATION. 



The secret of success in most industries is to pro- 

 duce enough, but not to produce too much. In the 

 case of diamonds this is especially indispensable. 

 Diamonds are valuable because they are scarce. To 

 produce too many diamonds is worse than to pro- 

 duce too few. To make diamonds pay it was indis- 

 pensable to control their output. To do this meant 

 to amalgamate the whole of the interests in one 

 gigantic combination. To this work Messrs. Rhodes 

 and Beit applied themselves. Mr. Rhodes supplied 

 the driving power, Mr. Beit was the financial genius 

 who enabled him to realise his vast and somewhat 



THE BEGINNINGS OF DE BEERS. 



There is no need to repeat the oft-told story of 

 the war of giants that ensued when Rhodes and Beit 

 on the one hand, and Barney Barnato on the other, 

 fought for the control of the diamond mines. The 

 storv is much more American than English in its 

 atmosphere. In the end, in the year 1880, Mr. Beit 

 and Mr. Rhodes, being then j'oung men of twenty- 

 seven, the De Beers Mining Company was formed, 

 with a capital of _;£2oo,ooo, on which two years 

 later a dividend of 3 per cent, was paid. To-day. 

 as the Dailv Telegraph reminds us. in accents of 

 awe and amazement, 



Pliotograp'h bl/] 



Mr Beits Town House in Park Lane. 



{.Campbell Gray. 



cloudy ideals. Nor was it only genius that Mr. Beit 

 supplied. On at least one crucial moment it was 

 Mr. Beit's readiness to advance _;£25o,ooo out of his 

 own pocket, or that of the firm he represented, which 

 saved the situation. Mr. Beit advanced the money 

 without commission or interest. He said, " when he 

 saw the necessity and desirability of getting that 

 control of the Kimberley mine, he put his whole 

 heart into it, and after a while it got to be a matter 

 of sport, and then he went into it still more 

 heartily " — a very characteristic utterance of a man 

 who found it always possible to do business like a 

 good sportsman, and who found business itself the 

 best of sport. 



The De Be«r8 Consolidated Mines Limited of to-day has 

 an issued share capital of £4.475.000. in shares of £2 lOa. 

 each, of which 790.000 are Forty per Cent. Ctunulative Pre- 

 ference and l.OOO.OilO Deferred shares, together with about 

 £4,500,000 of Debentures. Besides its vast undertakings in 

 Cape Colony, the De Beers Company holds the pre-empti'.e 

 right to any diamond mines discovered in the territories 

 of the British South .\frica and South-West Africa Com- 

 panies, and its monopoly has hitherto been so well main- 

 tained that reg-iilar dividends of 40 per cent, were dis- 

 tributed for several years prior to the war, and are now 

 being paid at the increased rate of 50 per cent, on the 

 Deferred shares. Mr. Beit was one of tlie two remaining 

 life governors, the other l^ing his partner. Mr. (now Sir) 

 Julius Charles ^Vernher. At the present time the market 

 value of the De Beers undertaking is between £42.000.000 

 and £43,000.000. and the company earned in 1900-19')! a net 

 profit of £2.688.000. 



From Kimberley, Mr. Beit, now a leading mem- 

 lier of the firm of Wernher, Beit and Co., went to 



