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Dutch and Belgian firms using diamonds

Posted October 21st, 2008 by admin

For some years prior to 1939, an increasing number of Dutch and Belgian firms were sending a proportion of their rough material to. Idar-Oberstein, Briicke, Hanau, and to other cutting centers in Germany. Here, the work was done on a commission basis since labor was cheaper in Germany. But Antwerp probably cut the bulk of the world’s supply of rough diamonds, and in that city some 30,000 cutters were normally employed, although Belgium itself purchased only about one per cent of the stones cut. As a rule, smaller stones were cut in this city, and the labor charges would amount to 60 per cent of the value of the finished product. In 1929, cut diamonds to the value of about $33,600,000 (£12,000,000) were exported from Antwerp.
Amsterdam employed about 6000 cutters, who mostly specialized in the cutting of larger stones, in which the labor represented one to five per cent of the value of the finished gem. Certain processes in lapidary work were also undertaken. Amsterdam has its Diamond Exchange, a building where important transactions lire operated by its members. Its Union of workers was world renowned before the industry was disorganized by war. At Antwerp, a Diamond Union was formed in 1937, its objects being to co-operate all diamond organizations, and also to develop the sale of diamonds by propaganda to the general public.