The Beginning of Diamond – India
The history of diamond dated back to India. Before the 17th century, though Borneo produced diamond in early time, the output is very low, it could be said that India was the only origin of diamond at that time. Ancient Indian classified diamond colors into four degrees. It was the caste system owned by India, which was a kind of classification of Indian status and identification: colorless diamond is called Brahman; light red, Kshatriya; light green, Vaisya; grey, Sudra.
There has been the descriptions and record in the document of 4th century BC. Archaeological research found that Indian had used diamond as the tool to process the beads of other gemstones. The Indian at that time had known that when 2 diamonds stroke, part of the diamonds would crack, even break up, which was the beginning of processing of breaking the diamond. From the point of view of Indian, there was the “Life Mystery” for everything on earth; it was a brave and valorous king, Balla, for the pre-life of diamond in legend. He was not only pure on birth, but also fair play in his life, and when he burnt himself on the altar of god, his bone became the seeds of diamonds, and the gods all came to plunder them. When they escaped hurriedly,
some of the seeds fell down, and they were the hard and transparent diamonds containing in the high mountains, forests and rivers.
The Road of Diamond – From India to Mediterranean
Just like the “Silk Road” of Ancient China leading to the western countries, it was the “Diamond Road” that connected Ancient India and Western countries. The “Diamond Road” was actually composed of two roads, one was land way, from India, through Iran and Iraqi nowadays, to Roman; the other was the sea way, stepping across the Indian ocean, through Mekka, the holy city of Islam, from the Alexander harbor of Egypt in the south bank of Mediterranean, going though the Mediterranean to Roman. The diamond appeared in Roman Empire from 1st – 3rd century all came from India through the two “Diamond Roads”. You can imagine that the best diamonds were surely owned by the king of India, next were the rulers of the countries on the way, when it finally reached the destination, the left diamonds were not many.
After the 3rd century AD, in the period of about 1000 years, diamond disappeared in Mediterranean. One of the main reasons was that as the decline of Roman Empire, Persia Empire rose between India and Mediterranean, becoming the main absorber of Indian diamonds, replacing Roman Empire. In addition, accompanying the decline of Roman Empire, the Christianity rose. As previous diamonds were mostly connected with paganism superstition, the believers converting the Christianity lost much interest in diamonds.
The New Life of Diamond – Europe
In the Mid-century of Europe, though diamond had been attached importance, diamond in people’s mind still had various mysteries: some believed that diamond could be used for curing; some thought it poisonous, people would die swallowing it. Some superstition about diamond had positive effect, officer and men believed that diamond would bring them courage, wearing diamond when fighting, they would be unconquerable, and some thought that diamond would make a man’s love to his wife deeper.
Inheriting the Fine Tradition and Usher in the Future Mission – Brazil
The diamond output of India reached the peak in 17th century, the annual output was about 50, 000 – 100, 000 carats, few of them reached the gemstone level. From then on, the output of diamond declined quickly, between 1725 and 1730, the diamonds transmitted from India to Europe were only 2000 – 5000 carats. The European Industry faced unprecedented challenge. Fortunately, another continent far away from Europe, Brazil of South America, diamonds were found, replacing India quickly, becoming the largest diamond production country. In the period of 140 years from 1730 to 1870, the diamond from Brazil dominated the world’s diamond market. Its output reached the peak between 1850 and 1859; the average annual output reached 300,000 carats. As the supply of diamond was adequate, diamond was no longer the luxuries enjoyed by the loyal families. So long as you had money, no matter what your status was, you could buy the diamond in the market as you like.
Modern Diamond Industry – South Africa
The diamond of Brazil once made world diamond industry flourishing, but its supply was limited. To the end of 1861, the annual diamond output declined to 170,000 carats, and its annual output was only 5000 carats. You can image the challenge to the European diamond industry, which began to take shape, with the dramatic output declination. At this moment, good news came from a mysterious continent – Africa. Some day in the summer of 1866, a 15 year old boy found a diamond weighing 21.25 carat on the Decker farm in the Orange bank of South Africa. The diamond was cut into a oblong diamond weighing 10.73 carat, named O’leary at the very beginning. When the diamond was shown in the world’s fair held in Pairs in 1889, the name had been changed to Eureka. When the South Africa revealed dawn, a large size diamond mine was found in Kimberley
soon. Between 1872 and 1903, the annual output of diamond explored from the mines around Kimberley city had reached 200,000,000 – 300,000,000 carats, composing of 95% of the world’s diamond output. As the discovery of South Africa diamond, with this foundation, the world’s largest diamond corporation, DeBeers, was set up, and creating the very prosperous modern diamond industry.
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