About the History of the Amsterdam Diamond Market

The United States of America is about the only nation that levies a duty on diamonds, under the present tariff, ten per cent on cut diamonds, while the rough are admitted free. The London Syndicate assorts the diamonds according to qualities, and in general, the American cutters purchase the best. The finest quality, the stones of the purest water, are brought here by American importers and cut in American establishments in a way to satisfy Americans, the most critical buyers of diamonds in the world, who demand the best effects, regardless of waste in diamond-cutting. Even the imported cut goods are frequently recut here.

The other great market for diamonds is Amsterdam in Holland. The industry of cutting diamonds which originated in India, and first appeared in Europe in the town of Bruges--where it was initiated by the Dutch lapidary, Ludwig van Berquen, who invented his particular process in the year 1476--was afterward centred in Antwerp, Belgium. After a struggle for the supremacy, however, Amsterdam became the chief centre of the industry, although it never succeeded in monopolising it, even in Europe. Max Bauer states in his book, completed in 1896, that the diamond-cutting industry in Amsterdam comprised seventy establishments equipped with modern appliances with steam as motive-power; the industry gave employment to twelve thousand persons; one establishment had four hundred and fifty grinding machines and about one thousand employees and in all there were in the diamond city about seven thousand grinding machines (skaifs) in operation. American diamond buyers, or jewellers whose interest in that which pertains to their business leads them to visit Amsterdam, the diamond city, while abroad, usually come via Cologne. Amsterdam's principal hotel is a rendezvous for diamond importers.

A financial transaction is said to have had much to do with enriching Amsterdam through locating there the centre of the diamond-cutting and polishing industry and making it one of the world's two greatest diamond markets; some rough diamonds deposited in an Amsterdam bank centuries ago as collateral for a loan were ordered, by the bank officials, to be cut. One of the reasons why diamond-cutting as an industry is firmly established in Europe is that there banks make loans on diamonds as collateral.

During the fourteenth century Amsterdam was an asylum for refugee merchants from Brabant; but its enduring prosperity did not begin until the sixteenth century, after the ruination of Antwerp by Spain. The population of Amsterdam, according to a census taken in 1905, was 551,415 and it is now the chief Dutch money market, the home of the Bank of The Netherlands, the diamond-polishing and cutting industry and cobalt blue manufactories being its main industrial interests. The principal square of the city is the "Dam," and canals and well-shaded streets help to make the city picturesque. Places to see in Amsterdam are the Royal Palace, a not particularly impressive building of four stories and painted blue; the "Seaman's Loop," a kind of sailors' club on one side of the "Dam," and the Ryk's Museum, which houses some interesting evidences of Dutch industries as well as much historical material. There are some exhibits of jewelry, gold and silver plate, and art metal work that prove interesting to the visiting foreign jeweller.

But the great feature of the city in the eyes of the world, its diamond trade, is environed in an unpretentious street about one city block in length, called Tulp Straat; many of the buildings were dwellings now converted into office buildings. The many incongruities here include the existence of a dominant spirit, a species of the genus boss, an untitled ruler of the diamond trade, who is a character worthy a description by Dickens.

A New York diamond merchant at Amsterdam was strolling through the city's streets with this gentleman when he stopped before the bulletin board of a Dutch newspaper and read with great interest some very startling headlines. The New Yorker waited patiently to hear what the evening edition of an Amsterdam daily newspaper was purveying to its phlegmatic patrons, but the untitled ruler of the diamond trade only said musingly, "Well, you Americans certainly are a great people."

"Why, what have we done now?" asked the American.

"A great people; certainly a great people," reiterated the Hollander.

"Say, what is it?" impatiently demanded the man from Maiden Lane.

"Why, the whole city of Baltimore is burned up; when you Americans do anything you certainly always do it on a large scale," replied the admiring Amsterdammer.

The ways of marketing diamonds to the world are as peculiar in Amsterdam as they are in London. After the diamonds are cut, and polished in the factories by Amsterdam's ten thousand workmen, they are vended through commissioners or through brokers. There is a general meeting ground, a sort of exchange, and there buyers and brokers come together. The space is inadequate and sometimes an overflow meeting of fifty or more men are clamouring for admittance. When they view the merchandise and learn the prices quoted, the buyer who sees something he wants makes an offer; the broker encloses the parcel bid upon in a sealed envelope with the offer made by the buyer written upon it and submits this to owners or persons interested in selling the goods; it is optional for the owner to accept or decline the offer, but if he does accept it, and thereafter the bidder should announce that he had usurped the feminine privilege of changeing his mind, he will find that he must make good his offer or suffer a legal penalty, which might be a term of imprisonment. The diamond brokers of Amsterdam receive a commission from both the seller and buyer.