Читать книгу The History of Mining - Michael Coulson - Страница 70

Rhodes left for London in early 1887 and there got financial backing to buy out the French Company; he crossed to Paris and after much negotiation his offer for the company was accepted. But Barnato, alarmed by Rhodes’s plan, moved to offer a higher price. This created problems for Rhodes, who was short of cash, but he had an alternative plan and he persuaded Barnato to allow him to complete his purchase of the French Company, which he would then sell on to Barnato’s Central Company for cash and shares.

Barnato agreed and so Rhodes lost the French Company but gained a 20% stake in the newly expanded Central Company, which by now as good as controlled the Big Pit. So Rhodes controlled De Beers and he had a sizeable indirect stake in the Kimberley Mine. From this point Rhodes began to work on Barnato to persuade him to cooperate in the amalgamation of De Beers with Kimberley on a 50-50 basis. Barnato waxed hot and cold over the proposition but could not bring himself to agree to it as he believed that Kimberley was worth more than De Beers.

Whilst this was going on the situation in the diamond market was deteriorating. The De Beers and Kimberley mines were producing flat out, selling diamonds into a market that was, as it had been for some years, oversupplied. Diamond prices were weak and when Barnato proposed to float the Kimberley Mine on the London Stock Exchange – which would have intensified the price war and severely undermined Rhodes’s plan for amalgamation of De Beers and Kimberley – Rhodes decided that a frontal assault on the Central Company to try and wrest control of it from Barnato was the only way to resolve things and so regain control of the diamond market.

In early 1888 Rhodes approached his loyal friend Alfred Beit to help him access the finance needed to enter the local stock market to buy Central shares. Beit responded positively and provided the required funds. Rhodes told Barnato what his plan was and battle commenced. Since both Barnato and Rhodes needed to acquire, either directly or for supporters, sufficient Central shares to take them above 50%, it was inevitable that the price of Central shares would rise sharply, and so they did from £14 to £49.

Whilst this was going on the underlying performance of the Central Company, and all other diamond miners in and around Kimberley, was deteriorating and most operations were barely profitable. Rhodes’s plan, however, justified his tactics, for if he could gain control of all the Kimberley diamond operations, and Central was critical to him, then he would be able to cut overall production, bring the market back into balance and the mines would once more be profitable.

The battle for shares raged on but Barnato’s supporters found themselves unable to resist taking profits as the share price of Central rose. Rhodes’s supporters were more disciplined and in the end his holding in Central rose above 50% and Barnato threw in the towel. Though he was personally much wealthier than Rhodes he could not match Rhodes’s tactical skill. The Kimberley diamond diggings were finally amalgamated and merged with De Beers Mining. The new company was called De Beers Consolidated Mines, a name that was to last until the end of the following century.