Читать книгу The History of Mining - Michael Coulson - Страница 71

In 1889 De Beers gained effective control of Duitoitspan and Bultfontein, and all the diamond diggings in and around Kimberley were finally under Rhodes’s control. Barnato and Rhodes therefore became partners after years of rivalry, but their disagreements were not at an end. Rhodes had sought control of the diamond diggings, not only for the purpose of more efficient working and control of output levels and therefore prices, but also because he wanted to use it as his vehicle for extending British influence into the heart of Africa. Barnato strongly opposed Rhodes’s imperial dream and it is unlikely that the government in London was keen either. But Rhodes was on a winning streak and the new deed of the merged company had at its centre the mission not only to mine diamonds but also to extend British influence throughout the continent using De Beers as the vehicle should the board (i.e. Rhodes) so decide.

The last years of the 19th century saw the newly amalgamated diamond fields bedded down and some recovery in the market as a more disciplined approach to mining and selling was implemented. At the same time the diamond czars themselves – Rhodes, Barnato, Beit and Robinson – were busy on new fronts in the goldfields of Johannesburg, Rhodesia and, for all but Rhodes, in the acquisition of mansions in London. The Boer War was also looming, which Rhodes welcomed as allowing his dreams of African hegemony to flourish in the wake of the inevitable British victory. The British did indeed defeat the Boers and annexed the independent Boer Republics but it was a very hard fight indeed, and Rhodes died before the victory. Barnato and Beit also died young, Beit made it past 50 but to just 53. Only Robinson survived into old age, dying in 1929 aged 89.

The 20th century saw the diamond industry go through, varyingly, periods of prosperity and struggle as economies grew and contracted. When the depression of the 1930s threatened the industry Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, building on Rhodes’s amalgamation success, tightened market discipline by setting up the single marketing channel, the CSO. We will look at this in more detail later. It saved the industry and lasted over 70 years before new forces in diamonds led to a break up of what had come close to being a De Beers monopoly. Rhodes would have been highly satisfied that his brainchild had managed to survive so long.