Blood Diamonds
The true story of the diamond ring.
The year is 1866, and young Stephanus Erasmus Jacobs is playing with a white stone he found in Africa while playing. A year later, it is on show at the Paris Exhibition as the "Eureka Diamond." Fast forward 2 years; an 83 carat diamond is found on the farm of Diederik and Joahannes De Beers. This diamond was named, the "Star of Africa." For fear of diamond hunters stealing from their land, the De Beers sold the majority of their land to Cicel Rhodes. With his help, De Beers Consolidated Mines was formed. Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, the chairman of the De Beers Group, came up with the idea of single channel marketing, which he describes as "a producers' co-operative including the major outside, or non-De Beers producers in accordance with the belief that only by limiting the quantity of diamonds put on the market, in accordance with the demand, and by selling through one channel, can the stability of the diamond trade be maintained."
The Origins of Blood
Oppenheimer's business plan was to stomp out competition, and limit the supply of diamonds, thus controlling their value. In the 1930s, WWII caused the diamond trade to falter. To try to boost sales, the De Beers Group invested in advertising. This led to the phrase, "Diamonds are Forever." The goal of the advertising campaign was to boost the emotional value of diamonds, and thus allow retailers to sell them at higher prices, and ultimately made diamond rings as popular as they are today. As diamonds became rarer and rarer, the methods of mining them became more and more violent. Now, rebel organizations enslave people as miners by promising them a cut of the profit, then refusing to give it to them. If they show resistance, they are beaten. Sometimes to death.
