The Syndicate

I always thought the reason diamonds are so expensive was because they are rare, gorgeous stones that attract the human eye with their glittering facets. However, after reading more from Greg Campell’s book Blood Diamonds (which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to educate themselves about this topic) I learned there’s this little thing called “the syndicate”. It has been said that “the syndicate” holds some similarities to the Mafia. Oh how endearing. Basically, “the syndicate” is made up of diamond traders, brokers, smugglers, and sellers, all operating in a world that is set far apart from the consumers of diamonds. Lawyers are rare and hardly involved in this scene at all. Then there are the diamond houses that are owned, operated, and passed down by family members or tightly knit business partners. My favorite diamond company (insert sarcasm here), De Beers, is, and I quote Mr. Campbell on this, “the world’s largest diamond buyer and seller…[with] the monopolistic perk of both buying a commodity and placing a value on it.” So basically, De Beers is the largest operator of this so called “syndicate” and controls the amount of diamonds that are released into the market place, thus allowing the price of diamonds to remain high, and for De Beers to continue to regulate and hold control over the prices of their diamonds. Interesting…….