The diamond- fever

From the moment of its beginning on the diamond, who was firstly known only unpolished, has fascinated humans. Its history started 3000 years ago in India. In Europe the diamond raised to the most precious under the precious stones at the European royal courts not until the Middle Age. Today the Rohstoffkartell of De Beers hold the worldwide diamond trade and dictates the prices.

India stood on the beginning of the historical development extraction. But nobody knows when the first diamond has been discovered. However a report from the 4th century before Christ says that already at that time humans dealt much with diamonds in India. With the Romans the diamonds had high prestige. The Romans believed in it's over natural energies, why it was also used as talisman.
All diamonds, with which people in India adorned themselves and which found their way to Europe firstly about the 13th century, were unpolished diamonds- so rough diamonds. It was the hardness of the precious stone that made the diamond to a symbol of courage and maleness in the Middle Age in West Europe. Because prime in the 13th century one discovered that the diamond's optical effect could be advanced through the work on it. The first step in diamond grinding was to polish the existing flats. In this way produced stones- called pointed stone - showed the first rear diamond grinding. At the end of the history of diamond grinding stands the modern brilliant cut that was developed around 1910.
In the middle of the 18th century Brazil, in that time a Portuguese colony, replaced India as diamond producer. It dominated the diamond market nearly 150 years until its mines were nearly worn out. At the end of the 19th century an amazing fortuity caused the finding of diamonds at the Oranje Lake in the South-Africa. 1866 a farmer discovered an eye-eye catching twinkling stone between tokens of kids, which shaped up as a flawless diamond of nearly 22 carat later. But not until the incidental found of a second still bigger diamond the diamond fever broke cut in India. The famous "star of South-Africa", how the stone was called later, is part of the British royal treasure today. The Buren who lived in the Oranje Valley in that times remained unimpressed of the incipient diamond flush. One of them was Johann de Beers. He sold his land to an agent for the unbelievable sum of 6000 pounds (that would be about half a million Euros today). Five years ago he had bought the meager land for only 60 pounds. The following fate of De Beere is unknown but his name went into the world of diamonds.
The diamond flush brought soldiers of fortune from everywhere to the South Africa.