588 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



this improved system, conjoined with underground mining, was 

 such an increase in the output of diamonds that an oversupply to 

 the market and a serious reduction in price became imminent; 

 and the period of 1883-'84 was, in fact, one of falling prices and 

 intense competition among the various producing companies, dur- 

 ing which the leading companies paid little or nothing to their 

 shareholders, and some entirely suspended operations.* Continued 

 disaster was, however, finally arrested through a practical con- 

 solidation of all the companies for the purpose of controlling 

 product and prices; and a revival in demand having occurred 

 about the same time, average prices were advanced between 1885 

 and 1887 from 20s. 5d per carat to 23s. 7-kd. 



The value of the diamonds exported from South Africa since 

 the first discovery of the mines, or from 1868 to 1887, is believed 

 to have been between £40,000,000 and £45,000,000 ($200,000,000 to 

 $225,000,000), of which about £15,500,000 ($77,500,000) represents 

 the value of the output from 1883 to 1887. Very curiously, this 

 large export of value — nearly all in the first instance to England 

 — seems to find no distinctive place in the columns of British im- 

 ports, although they have served in a large measure to enable 

 South Africa to pay for her imports of British and other foreign 

 products. If the export of diamonds from South Africa to Eu- 

 rope has aggregated £45,000,000 ($225,000,000) in the rough, the 

 process of cutting may be regarded as having increased their mar- 

 ket value full one hundred per cent, or to £90,000,000 (or $437,- 

 000,000) — a greater value than the yield of the world during the 

 two preceding centuries. The aggregate weight of the entire dia- 

 mond product of the South African mines up to 1887 is estimated 

 at 38,000,000 carats, or over seven and a half tons. 



Of this immense product there is good reason for believing 

 that a very large proportion found a market in the United States. 

 According to the customs returns, the value of the unset dia- 

 monds which were imported into the United States, and paid duty, 

 from 1877 to 1887 inclusive, was in excess of $50,000,000 ; and it 

 can hardly be doubted that an equal or larger import in the form 

 of unset stones and jewelry escaped during the same period the 

 cognizance of the revenue officials. The value of the present 

 annual import of precious stones not set — mainly diamonds — is 

 about $10,000,000. In 1868 the annual value of a corresponding 

 import was about $1,000,000. These data, imperfect as they are, 



* The "Kimberly Central Company" — the leading organization — which from 1880 to 

 1883 increased its dividend from ten to thirty per cent, paid nothing to its shareholders 

 during 1884 and 1885, and at the close of 1886 was only able to declare a dividend of five 

 per cent. The other great diamond-mining company, the " De Beers," was more fortunate, 

 and paid for 1884 to 1886 an average of about eight and a half per cent; but most of the 

 companies paid nothing during the same period, and some entirely suspended mining. 



