For ages human beings have placed great value in relatively useless baubles and trinkets. These items, whether they are precious metals, stones or minerals, have relatively little tangible value other than their visual appeal, as well as their rarity. Of these precious metals and stones the diamond has been the ultimate fancy of individuals in the modern era; these small, clear pieces of carbon have been valued for the beauty, and for their supposed rarity. Men struggled for centuries to find steady sources of these gems that could be collected and turned into jewelry. Finally in 1888, following the lead of colonialism, Cecil Rhodes formed the De Beers Mining Corporation, which would create a total monopoly over the diamond industry.
The reason behind the creation of such an organization, as reasoned by Rhodes and others, was that diamonds were in fact not as scarce a commodity as originally imagined. In fact, there was such an abundant supply of diamonds coming out of mines from Southern Africa that strict limitations over the availability of diamonds had to be instituted. In essence, an artificial scarcity was created. In order to sustain this scarcity, DeBeers brokers have attempted to buy virtually every diamond that is dug from a mine. Presently they purchase over 70% of the diamonds unearthed around the world every year.
Historically De Beers has shown very little concern as to whether these diamonds were produced by a legitimate supplier, or by illegal means, and it is this indiscretion which is the root of many of the problems that face diamond rich nations in Africa today. De Beers alone sets the price of rough diamonds produced on the global market today. This manipulation of supply and demand for rough diamonds is manipulated from their Central Selling Organization, which is based out of London. The CSO brings together gems produced from De Beerss mines, as well as the outside market, or non De Beers mines.
As of 1998 the international diamond industry produced an estimated 115 million carats of rough diamonds with a market value of $6.7 billion. At the end of the diamond refinement process they were converted into 67.1 billion pieces of jewelry that was worth close to $50 billion. Diamonds, rather than funding the growth of many African nations have only served to be a source of conflict instead. Companies such as De Beers and others have directly contributed to the death and strife caused in many parts of Africa, in particular Sierra Leone and Angola. These two countries in particular continue to suffer the effects of civil war which are greatly funded through diamonds.
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