1 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:07,200 Speaker 1: This is Red Pilled America. A quick question before we 2 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:09,959 Speaker 1: start the show. How many shows are there out there 3 00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:12,920 Speaker 1: like Red Pilled America. You know the answer. It's zero, 4 00:00:13,119 --> 00:00:16,320 Speaker 1: and why because it's hard to produce a storytelling show. 5 00:00:16,840 --> 00:00:20,600 Speaker 1: Join the fanbam and support storytelling that aligns with your values. 6 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,959 Speaker 1: Just go to Redpilled America dot com and click join 7 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:26,599 Speaker 1: in the top menu. You'll get add free access to 8 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:30,560 Speaker 1: our entire back catalog of episodes. Help us save America 9 00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:36,040 Speaker 1: one story at a time. Throughout recorded history, humans have 10 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:42,239 Speaker 1: ascribed value to countless items. They become so coveted that 11 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:45,800 Speaker 1: accumulating them assures life changing wealth. I want to get 12 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:49,479 Speaker 1: Lucy some real pearls. I just love finding new places 13 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:49,800 Speaker 1: to wear. 14 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:53,440 Speaker 2: Diamonds go gentlemen, which can be melted down and recast. 15 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:55,000 Speaker 2: Its virtually untraceable. 16 00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:57,640 Speaker 1: You look for oil, that's right when you pay for 17 00:00:57,680 --> 00:00:59,440 Speaker 1: a place that has it, it depends. 18 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:02,560 Speaker 3: You can buy bitcoin. It's the global asset, it's the 19 00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:03,520 Speaker 3: biggest brand. 20 00:01:03,640 --> 00:01:06,680 Speaker 4: It's actually the best thermodynamically sound investment. 21 00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:10,479 Speaker 1: Whether it be pearls, diamonds, rubies, gold, oil, or bitcoin. 22 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:13,280 Speaker 1: At one time or another, all of these things have 23 00:01:13,319 --> 00:01:17,680 Speaker 1: been considered extremely valuable? But why? What makes something valuable? 24 00:01:21,319 --> 00:01:22,720 Speaker 1: I'm Patrick Carelci. 25 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 3: And I'm Adriana Cortes. 26 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:27,600 Speaker 1: And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show. 27 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:31,199 Speaker 3: This is not another talk show covering the day's news. 28 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:33,360 Speaker 3: We're all about telling stories. 29 00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:34,480 Speaker 2: Stories. 30 00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:37,160 Speaker 1: Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories. 31 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:41,920 Speaker 3: The media mocks stories about everyday Americans. If the globalist. 32 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:45,640 Speaker 1: Ignore, you can think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries, 33 00:01:45,640 --> 00:01:55,160 Speaker 1: and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to 34 00:01:55,200 --> 00:02:07,960 Speaker 1: Red Pilled America. What makes something valuable? It's a deceptively 35 00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:11,239 Speaker 1: simple question, and like many Red Pilled America stories, it 36 00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:15,040 Speaker 1: surfaced in an unexpected way. Towards the end of twenty 37 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:19,040 Speaker 1: twenty five, we watched the price of gold and silver skyrocket. 38 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:22,000 Speaker 1: The price of gold it has soared into over four 39 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:24,720 Speaker 1: thousand dollars an ounce for the first time ever, with 40 00:02:24,880 --> 00:02:29,000 Speaker 1: silver also making unprecedented gains. Then a few days later, 41 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:32,680 Speaker 1: we heard an argument about, of all things, lab grown diamonds. 42 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 1: One side insisted that they were nothing like their natural counterparts. 43 00:02:36,680 --> 00:02:40,600 Speaker 1: The reasoning was straightforward. Lab diamonds may be chemically identical, 44 00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:44,240 Speaker 1: but they're created in days, while natural diamonds take millions 45 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:47,359 Speaker 1: of years to form deep within the earth. That argument 46 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:49,919 Speaker 1: immediately brought to mind a scene from the movie Now 47 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:51,200 Speaker 1: You See Me, Now You Don't. 48 00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:53,480 Speaker 2: Diamonds created in laboratories. 49 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:57,200 Speaker 4: They purported to her value, but they're neither natural nor red. 50 00:02:57,639 --> 00:03:00,680 Speaker 2: What honest woman wants a falsehood on her finger. One 51 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:02,960 Speaker 2: of the great truths left is the power behind us 52 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:06,920 Speaker 2: natural jib real diamonds full people with passion. 53 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:09,920 Speaker 1: The discussion got us curious, so we looked up the 54 00:03:09,960 --> 00:03:12,960 Speaker 1: price of natural diamonds and were stunned by what we'd learned. 55 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:16,079 Speaker 1: Over the past three years, the price of natural diamonds 56 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:19,560 Speaker 1: has dropped roughly thirty percent, and what was perhaps most 57 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:22,080 Speaker 1: surprising was that near the end of twenty twenty five, 58 00:03:22,400 --> 00:03:26,840 Speaker 1: lab grown diamond engagement rings accounted for nearly sixty percent 59 00:03:26,919 --> 00:03:30,320 Speaker 1: of the US market. More than half of new engagement 60 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:34,040 Speaker 1: rings featured a lab grown diamond, with gold and silver 61 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:38,119 Speaker 1: skyrocketing while natural diamonds are plummeting in price. It got 62 00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:42,080 Speaker 1: us to wondering what makes something valuable. To find the answer, 63 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:45,400 Speaker 1: we're going to tell the story of Debier's, the multinational 64 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:49,680 Speaker 1: diamond company that built the most successful monopoly in modern history. 65 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:56,480 Speaker 1: Along the way. We'll hear from Kevin de Merritt, founder 66 00:03:56,560 --> 00:03:59,600 Speaker 1: of Lear Capital, one of the largest precious metal firms 67 00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:02,720 Speaker 1: in the United States. When you strip away the romance, 68 00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:06,520 Speaker 1: the marketing, and the carefully crafted illusions, the question of 69 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:10,520 Speaker 1: value becomes surprisingly difficult to answer. And what you discover 70 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:13,280 Speaker 1: again and again is that many of the things that 71 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:17,239 Speaker 1: humanity has prized most highly weren't naturally valuable at all. 72 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:19,520 Speaker 1: Their value was manufactured. 73 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:28,760 Speaker 3: It's eighteen seventy one in the northern cape of South Africa. 74 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:33,400 Speaker 3: Wind is blowing through the uncultivated grassland. Cattle is shuffling 75 00:04:33,520 --> 00:04:38,440 Speaker 3: lazily in the distance, while a young mix raced laborer 76 00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:41,960 Speaker 3: is doing what he always does, walking the same dusty 77 00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:45,400 Speaker 3: path on the farm of two brothers. He's not searching 78 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:50,840 Speaker 3: for anything, He's just working. Then he kicks a stone. 79 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:54,440 Speaker 3: It catches his eye, a flash of light in the 80 00:04:54,520 --> 00:04:58,800 Speaker 3: South African dirt. He bends down, brushes away the soil, 81 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:03,240 Speaker 3: and lifts the tiny rough stone in the palm of 82 00:05:03,279 --> 00:05:07,799 Speaker 3: his hand to him. It just looks different. But little 83 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:09,720 Speaker 3: did he know that the stone in his hand is 84 00:05:09,760 --> 00:05:12,599 Speaker 3: about to set off a chain reaction that will lead 85 00:05:12,680 --> 00:05:16,200 Speaker 3: to one of the most powerful monopolies in human history, 86 00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:19,400 Speaker 3: because what this laborer is holding is one of the 87 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:23,359 Speaker 3: rarest gems in existence, a diamond, and he found it 88 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:26,400 Speaker 3: on a farm that would come to be known as Debir's. 89 00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:31,159 Speaker 3: To understand the significance of this moment, we must go 90 00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:34,799 Speaker 3: back way back to a time when diamonds were first 91 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:42,000 Speaker 3: recorded in human history. For most of human civilization, if 92 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:45,640 Speaker 3: you wanted a diamond, you had one place to go, India. 93 00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:49,800 Speaker 3: For more than two thousand years, India was the only 94 00:05:49,880 --> 00:05:53,920 Speaker 3: known source of diamonds on Earth. These durable stones came 95 00:05:53,960 --> 00:05:57,920 Speaker 3: from the river gravels of a region called Golconda, and 96 00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:00,919 Speaker 3: they were nothing like those found in the massive mines 97 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:05,480 Speaker 3: of South Africa. They were any rare, hard, and almost 98 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:11,080 Speaker 3: impossible to get. Imagine this, hundreds of laborers standing waist 99 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:15,359 Speaker 3: deep in muddy rivers, scooping gravel into baskets, sifting and 100 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:19,120 Speaker 3: washing hour after hour, day after day, all for the 101 00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:23,039 Speaker 3: chance that maybe one in tens of thousands of pebbles 102 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:27,640 Speaker 3: would flash back a hard, cold light that was a diamond. 103 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:31,719 Speaker 3: Prior to the eighteen hundreds, the entire world production of 104 00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:35,719 Speaker 3: gem quality diamonds amounted to only a few pounds a year. 105 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:39,880 Speaker 3: Their rarity gave them an instant mystique. They weren't just 106 00:06:39,960 --> 00:06:44,280 Speaker 3: pretty stones. They were strange. They would scratch any other material. 107 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:46,800 Speaker 3: They were durable enough to where they didn't seem to 108 00:06:46,839 --> 00:06:51,640 Speaker 3: wear down. Like gold, they didn't corrode, decay, tarnish, or degrade. 109 00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:56,320 Speaker 3: And also, like gold, diamonds sparkle. They caught the light 110 00:06:56,440 --> 00:07:00,239 Speaker 3: in a way other gems didn't. For early rulers and priests, 111 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:04,600 Speaker 3: they felt supernatural, so from the beginning, diamonds were never 112 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:08,159 Speaker 3: a normal luxury. They weren't like cloth or spices, or 113 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:11,520 Speaker 3: even gold coins that passed from hand to hand. They 114 00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:15,840 Speaker 3: were whispers from the gods, tiny pieces of indestructible light. 115 00:07:16,680 --> 00:07:19,600 Speaker 3: In the ancient world, almost no one ever saw one. 116 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:24,560 Speaker 3: They were reserved for royalty, mystics and religious figures. Diamonds 117 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:28,320 Speaker 3: were mounted into idols, set into ceremonial weapons, or sown 118 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:31,280 Speaker 3: into robes that only the most powerful humans on earth 119 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:35,240 Speaker 3: would ever wear. And because they were small and extremely valuable, 120 00:07:35,480 --> 00:07:39,280 Speaker 3: they had another quality as well. They were portable. They 121 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:42,240 Speaker 3: could be sewn into a hem or slipped into a seam, 122 00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:45,840 Speaker 3: providing the flexibility of carrying a small fortune in the 123 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:49,080 Speaker 3: lining of a cloak. Long before there was a phrase 124 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:53,120 Speaker 3: like stock portfolio, diamonds began to develop a second identity, 125 00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:56,800 Speaker 3: not just as symbols of divine power, but as tiny, 126 00:07:56,960 --> 00:08:00,920 Speaker 3: portable storehouses of wealth. Because if something can't be concealed 127 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:04,080 Speaker 3: or carried in times of upheaval, it struggles to function 128 00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:06,840 Speaker 3: as a long term store of value during times of stress. 129 00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:11,080 Speaker 3: That's why gold and silver, coins and diamonds were considered 130 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:15,560 Speaker 3: valuable to refugees and land and factories were not. By 131 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:18,640 Speaker 3: the Middle Ages, those Indian diamonds had made their way 132 00:08:18,680 --> 00:08:22,360 Speaker 3: west along the same trade routes that carried silk, spices 133 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:26,440 Speaker 3: and porcelain. Muslim merchants baried them through Persia, and the 134 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:30,080 Speaker 3: levant Italian traders brought them to the courts of Europe. 135 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:34,439 Speaker 3: Little by little, diamonds began appearing in royal treasuries in France, 136 00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:37,760 Speaker 3: England and the German States. But if you look at 137 00:08:37,800 --> 00:08:41,080 Speaker 3: who handled them, who cut them, and who evaluated them, 138 00:08:41,280 --> 00:08:47,240 Speaker 3: a pattern emerges. Many of the hands holding those stones 139 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:50,920 Speaker 3: belonged to Jews, and this was not by accident. Medieval 140 00:08:50,960 --> 00:08:53,800 Speaker 3: Europe ran on a system of guilds. If you wanted 141 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:56,800 Speaker 3: to be a carpenter, mason or goldsmith. You didn't just 142 00:08:56,840 --> 00:08:59,720 Speaker 3: decide one day to open a shop. You joined a guild, 143 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,920 Speaker 3: a powerful fraternity of craftsmen that controlled training prices and 144 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:07,199 Speaker 3: who was allowed to work. Guilds weren't just labor unions. 145 00:09:07,360 --> 00:09:11,160 Speaker 3: They were social clubs, religious institutions, and protection rackets all 146 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:14,760 Speaker 3: mixed together, and there was one basic rule. You had 147 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:17,880 Speaker 3: to be Christian. If you weren't Christian, if you were 148 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:20,600 Speaker 3: Jewish or any other faith for that matter, you were 149 00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:23,959 Speaker 3: locked out of most of the respectable trades. You couldn't 150 00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:27,319 Speaker 3: become a master carpenter, you couldn't become a guild goldsmith. 151 00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:30,800 Speaker 3: Your options shrank to a tiny list of professions that 152 00:09:30,880 --> 00:09:34,440 Speaker 3: lay outside guild control. Two of those professions were money 153 00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:37,960 Speaker 3: lending and gem polishing, and those turned out to be 154 00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:42,080 Speaker 3: the perfect combination for diamonds. Christian doctrine at the time 155 00:09:42,200 --> 00:09:45,920 Speaker 3: frowned on usury, or lending money at interest, so the 156 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:49,520 Speaker 3: Church pushed Christians away from the business of high interest lending. 157 00:09:49,800 --> 00:09:54,360 Speaker 3: But economies still needed loans. Kings, princes, and merchants. They 158 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:57,960 Speaker 3: all needed people willing to extend credit to expand an 159 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:01,480 Speaker 3: empire or go to war, or corner or market that 160 00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:04,280 Speaker 3: vacuum was filled in large parts by the Jewish community. 161 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:09,319 Speaker 3: Money lending requires collateral. Something that holds value, is portable 162 00:10:09,360 --> 00:10:12,400 Speaker 3: and can be redeemed in any major city. Land isn't 163 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:16,560 Speaker 3: practical for that livestock dies. But throughout history gold and 164 00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:17,760 Speaker 3: silver fit that bill. 165 00:10:17,880 --> 00:10:20,280 Speaker 4: I mean, gold has been around for a long time 166 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:23,920 Speaker 4: and most people kind of remember talking about it in 167 00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:24,440 Speaker 4: the Bible. 168 00:10:29,040 --> 00:10:32,240 Speaker 3: That's Kevin de Merritt, founder of Leer Capital, one of 169 00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:35,000 Speaker 3: the largest precious metal firms in the United States. 170 00:10:35,280 --> 00:10:37,400 Speaker 4: Gold began as a store of value in four thousand 171 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:41,680 Speaker 4: BC in ancient Egypt, and silver followed very closely after. 172 00:10:42,200 --> 00:10:45,720 Speaker 4: Was widely used as accounting money, where prices and wages 173 00:10:45,760 --> 00:10:49,120 Speaker 4: were denominated in silver by weight. So by around six 174 00:10:49,240 --> 00:10:52,400 Speaker 4: or seven hundred BC, the first standardized coins using gold 175 00:10:52,440 --> 00:10:55,520 Speaker 4: and silver, making really the birth of money as it's 176 00:10:55,600 --> 00:10:56,640 Speaker 4: recognized today. 177 00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:00,280 Speaker 3: Throughout history, gold and silver have been so widely viewed 178 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:03,840 Speaker 3: as holding value that systems had to be to protect 179 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:05,119 Speaker 3: coins from scammers. 180 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:08,440 Speaker 4: A great story about the Romans was in the beginning, 181 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:11,439 Speaker 4: people would take their gold coins and they would shave 182 00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:14,079 Speaker 4: off a little the edge of the coin, right, you 183 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:15,720 Speaker 4: would just get the coin to shave off the edge. 184 00:11:15,840 --> 00:11:18,880 Speaker 4: So some people believe that the reeds, the little you 185 00:11:18,920 --> 00:11:21,480 Speaker 4: know things on the edge of the coin, were there 186 00:11:21,559 --> 00:11:24,000 Speaker 4: so you can hold onto the coin. That isn't the case. 187 00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:26,080 Speaker 4: They put the reeds on the edge of the coins, 188 00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:28,240 Speaker 4: the Romans did so you couldn't scrape them off. 189 00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:31,120 Speaker 3: So gold and silver have been viewed as valuable for 190 00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:34,439 Speaker 3: thousands of years. They were used in money lending as 191 00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:37,360 Speaker 3: collateral because they held value, were portable, and could be 192 00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:40,920 Speaker 3: redeemed in any major city. When diamonds came along, they 193 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:43,880 Speaker 3: were added to gold and silver as collateral for lending. 194 00:11:44,280 --> 00:11:48,480 Speaker 3: That's because they were all globally recognizable wherever you went. 195 00:11:48,679 --> 00:11:51,320 Speaker 3: They were viewed as valuable, and in some ways in 196 00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:56,400 Speaker 3: medieval Europe, diamonds had an added benefit. If you were 197 00:11:56,480 --> 00:12:00,120 Speaker 3: Jewish in a Christian kingdom, your safety was never guaranteed. 198 00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:05,440 Speaker 3: Edicts could be announced, crowds could turn, you could be 199 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:08,080 Speaker 3: expelled on a short notice from the place your family 200 00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:11,559 Speaker 3: had lived for generations. In that world, wealth that can 201 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:15,280 Speaker 3: be moved overnight is more than just convenient, it's life saving. 202 00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:20,480 Speaker 3: So diamonds served two roles at once, collateral for loans 203 00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:24,000 Speaker 3: and an emergency vault. That could be stitched into your 204 00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:29,360 Speaker 3: clothing over generations that created expertise. Diamonds were not as 205 00:12:29,400 --> 00:12:32,920 Speaker 3: fungible as gold or silver. Fungible, meaning one diamond gem 206 00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:35,880 Speaker 3: couldn't just be traded for another of the same size, 207 00:12:36,240 --> 00:12:38,680 Speaker 3: unlike a gold or silver coin that could be traded 208 00:12:38,679 --> 00:12:40,920 Speaker 3: for another gold or silver coin of the same weight. 209 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:47,760 Speaker 3: Diamonds come in different colors and qualities. Jewish traders and craftsmen, 210 00:12:47,960 --> 00:12:51,000 Speaker 3: locked out of the guild system began developing a deep 211 00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:54,280 Speaker 3: familiarity with these stones, how to evaluate them, how to 212 00:12:54,320 --> 00:12:56,840 Speaker 3: cut them, how to move them quietly from one royal 213 00:12:56,880 --> 00:13:04,040 Speaker 3: court to another. As one historian put it, by the 214 00:13:04,080 --> 00:13:08,880 Speaker 3: early modern period, diamonds and Jewish communities had become intimately connected, 215 00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:12,760 Speaker 3: and once that connection was established, it shaped the entire 216 00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:14,240 Speaker 3: global diamond trade. 217 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:19,000 Speaker 1: From the outside, it looks almost accidental. Jewish communities were 218 00:13:19,000 --> 00:13:23,480 Speaker 1: scattered across the map in Lisbon, Antwerp, Venice, Hamburg and Vienna. 219 00:13:23,760 --> 00:13:27,160 Speaker 1: They were connected by family ties, by letters sent from Afar, 220 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:30,360 Speaker 1: and by trade. They already had this skeleton of a 221 00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:33,880 Speaker 1: cross border network. At the exact moment the world needed 222 00:13:33,880 --> 00:13:37,520 Speaker 1: a cross border network to move tiny, high value objects, 223 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:41,200 Speaker 1: so diamonds began to flow along the Jewish trade routes. 224 00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:45,760 Speaker 1: Lisbon and Antwerp became early hubs ports where Indian stones 225 00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:49,560 Speaker 1: entered Europe, got evaluated and cut, then made their way 226 00:13:49,640 --> 00:13:53,439 Speaker 1: into the crowns and jewelry boxes of kings and queens. 227 00:13:53,559 --> 00:14:01,680 Speaker 1: Then history intervened. In fourteen ninety two, the Spanish monarchy 228 00:14:01,800 --> 00:14:06,360 Speaker 1: issued the Alhambrad Decree expelling Jews from Spain. In Portugal, 229 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:11,240 Speaker 1: similar pressures followed across the Iberian world. Jewish communities faced 230 00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:15,840 Speaker 1: a simple choice convert or leave. Many left. When Jews 231 00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:18,720 Speaker 1: were forced out of Lisbon and Antwerp, they carried their 232 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:22,360 Speaker 1: skills with them and their hand tools. A factory wasn't 233 00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:25,520 Speaker 1: needed to cut diamonds. All that was needed was a bench, 234 00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:28,280 Speaker 1: a wheel, and some powder, all of which could fit 235 00:14:28,360 --> 00:14:31,920 Speaker 1: into a cart. So when those families resettled in Amsterdam, 236 00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:36,400 Speaker 1: they didn't just start over, they remade the industry. Amsterdam 237 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:40,040 Speaker 1: quickly became the new center of European diamond cutting. At 238 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:42,840 Speaker 1: the same time, the Dutch Republic was rising as a 239 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:47,520 Speaker 1: maritime power. Its great trading company, the Dutch East India Company, 240 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:52,360 Speaker 1: wanted direct access to Indian goods. Jewish merchants helped finance 241 00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:55,760 Speaker 1: those voyages and in return secured their place in a 242 00:14:55,840 --> 00:15:00,560 Speaker 1: lucrative trade. Soon Amsterdam replaced Lisbon as the main European 243 00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:04,520 Speaker 1: portal for Indian diamonds. Stones came in on Dutch ships, 244 00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:07,520 Speaker 1: got cut by Jewish craftsmen, and headed back out in 245 00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:11,960 Speaker 1: refined form into the royal courts of Europe. Then, in 246 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:16,000 Speaker 1: seventeen twenty five, the world caught a break. For centuries, 247 00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:19,120 Speaker 1: people had worried that India was running out of diamonds. 248 00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:23,480 Speaker 1: The trickle of stones was slowing, prices were rising. There 249 00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:27,440 Speaker 1: was a real fear that diamonds, these symbols of indestructible wealth, 250 00:15:27,680 --> 00:15:31,120 Speaker 1: might actually disappear. Then a discovery was made in an 251 00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:35,440 Speaker 1: unlikely place. In the early seventeen hundreds, miners searching for 252 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:40,440 Speaker 1: gold and Brazilian river beds started finding unfamiliar stones. They 253 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:44,560 Speaker 1: were hard, they scratched metal, They looked suspiciously like diamonds, 254 00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:48,360 Speaker 1: or had got back to Europe. Tests confirmed it. The 255 00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:52,320 Speaker 1: world had a second diamond source. For a while, Brazilian 256 00:15:52,400 --> 00:15:56,960 Speaker 1: stones eased the pressure. European elites could keep buying, jewelers 257 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:01,240 Speaker 1: could keep designing, but the geopolitical balance was shifting. By 258 00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:05,400 Speaker 1: the mid eighteenth century, Britain dominated the seas, its navy 259 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:08,760 Speaker 1: controlled the shipping lanes, and as a result, its trading 260 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:13,240 Speaker 1: companies muscled their way into every profitable enterprise. So it's 261 00:16:13,280 --> 00:16:16,840 Speaker 1: no surprise that Britain gradually took control of the diamond 262 00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:20,520 Speaker 1: trade as well. London, not Amsterdam, became the new trading 263 00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:24,720 Speaker 1: center for uncut stones, and once again the merchants followed. 264 00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:29,120 Speaker 1: Jewish diamond traders moved their operations to London, keeping their 265 00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:32,880 Speaker 1: cutting factories in Antwerp, where labor and expertise were established, 266 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:36,600 Speaker 1: and shipped finished gems to royal courts across Europe. At 267 00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:39,200 Speaker 1: the top of this ecosystem sat a small number of 268 00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:43,920 Speaker 1: elite specialists, expert evaluators, and financers who became known as 269 00:16:43,960 --> 00:16:48,560 Speaker 1: court Jews, trusted Jewish advisers who handled loans, jewels, and 270 00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:52,960 Speaker 1: delicate diplomacy for kings. In Sweden, this role was filled 271 00:16:52,960 --> 00:16:56,360 Speaker 1: by the Isaac family, and Hamburg by the Lippolds, and 272 00:16:56,440 --> 00:16:59,520 Speaker 1: in Vienna by the Oppenheimer's, a name that will hear 273 00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:02,960 Speaker 1: again later in this story. By the late seventeen hundreds, 274 00:17:03,120 --> 00:17:07,240 Speaker 1: Jewish traders controlled virtually the entire world of diamond traffic, 275 00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:10,639 Speaker 1: but there was a problem they couldn't solve. The earth 276 00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:13,719 Speaker 1: seemed to be running out of the shiny stone again, 277 00:17:14,280 --> 00:17:19,119 Speaker 1: Brazilian production began to fade. India's supply was nearly exhausted 278 00:17:19,160 --> 00:17:22,080 Speaker 1: as well. By the eighteen sixties, it looked like the 279 00:17:22,119 --> 00:17:25,520 Speaker 1: age of diamonds was coming to an end. Then a 280 00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:28,280 Speaker 1: boy on the far tip of South Africa picked up 281 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:36,560 Speaker 1: a shiny rock and it changed everything. Life can be 282 00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:39,560 Speaker 1: pretty stressful these days. You want to know what makes 283 00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:44,679 Speaker 1: me feel better? Licorice from the Licorice Guy. Call me crazy, 284 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:48,280 Speaker 1: but it's true because I love licorice. Longtime listeners of 285 00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:52,040 Speaker 1: Bread Pilled America know that licorice is my absolute favorite candy, 286 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:54,840 Speaker 1: and the very best licorice, hands down, comes from the 287 00:17:54,840 --> 00:17:57,880 Speaker 1: Licorice Guy. I know licorice, and it doesn't get any 288 00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:00,440 Speaker 1: better than this. What truly sets it apart is its 289 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:03,640 Speaker 1: flavor and its freshness. The softness of this licorice will 290 00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:06,520 Speaker 1: blow your mind. I've never had anything like it. The 291 00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:10,879 Speaker 1: Licorice Guy offers jumbo gourmet licorice and nostalgic seasonal flavors 292 00:18:10,960 --> 00:18:15,159 Speaker 1: a red, blue, raspberry, cinnamon, watermelon, black and apple. Trust me. 293 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:18,200 Speaker 1: They're all delicious. What I also love about the Liquorice 294 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:20,959 Speaker 1: Guy is that it's an American family owned business, and 295 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:23,120 Speaker 1: you all know that I'm a big proponent of supporting 296 00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:26,760 Speaker 1: American companies. Right now, Red Pilled America listeners get fifteen 297 00:18:26,760 --> 00:18:30,560 Speaker 1: percent off when you enter RPA fifteen at checkout. Visit 298 00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:34,920 Speaker 1: Licoriceguy dot com and enter RPA fifteen at checkout. That's 299 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:38,680 Speaker 1: Licoriceguy dot com. They ship daily, treat yourself and those 300 00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:44,840 Speaker 1: you love, and taste the difference. Welcome back to Red 301 00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:48,680 Speaker 1: Pilled America. So as the eighteen seventies arrived, there was 302 00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:52,200 Speaker 1: a problem that diamond trade couldn't solve. The earth seemed 303 00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:55,359 Speaker 1: to be running out of the shiny stone. Brazilian production 304 00:18:55,480 --> 00:18:59,280 Speaker 1: began to fade. Handhandlers sifting through the riverbeds were coming 305 00:18:59,359 --> 00:19:04,040 Speaker 1: up dry. India's supply was nearly exhausted as well. By 306 00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:07,160 Speaker 1: the eighteen sixties, it looked like the age of diamonds 307 00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:10,880 Speaker 1: was coming to an end. But then in eighteen seventy one, 308 00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:14,000 Speaker 1: a mixed raced laborer was walking on a farm in 309 00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:16,760 Speaker 1: the Northern Cape of South Africa when he saw a 310 00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:19,879 Speaker 1: glint of light in the dirt. The property he was 311 00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:23,560 Speaker 1: on belonged to two brothers, Dietereric and Johannes de Bier, 312 00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:28,200 Speaker 1: ordinary Boer farmers who thought they owned pasture, not treasure. 313 00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:32,680 Speaker 1: Unknown to the Deber brothers, an onslaught of diamond prospectors 314 00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:36,280 Speaker 1: had been flooding to their area. Four years earlier, a 315 00:19:36,359 --> 00:19:39,160 Speaker 1: shepherd boy was walking on a farm near the Orange River, 316 00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:42,600 Speaker 1: about eighty miles southwest of the Deber property when he 317 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:45,320 Speaker 1: found a shiny pebble in the dirt. He picked it 318 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:48,360 Speaker 1: up and took it home. His family treated it as 319 00:19:48,359 --> 00:19:52,320 Speaker 1: a curiosity. Kids played with it. It got passed around 320 00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:55,560 Speaker 1: like a toy. Eventually the stone found its way to 321 00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:59,119 Speaker 1: a neighboring farmer, a man named Schok van Niekirk. He 322 00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:02,240 Speaker 1: had a good eye and a good memory. The stone 323 00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:05,080 Speaker 1: reminded him of a rumor he'd heard about diamonds in 324 00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:08,680 Speaker 1: far off lands. He decided to send it off for testing. 325 00:20:09,280 --> 00:20:12,440 Speaker 1: After bouncing through several hands, it landed on the desk 326 00:20:12,560 --> 00:20:15,840 Speaker 1: of a respected scientist in the Cape Colony of South Africa, 327 00:20:16,040 --> 00:20:20,240 Speaker 1: who inspected it and tested its hardness. He finally issued 328 00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:23,640 Speaker 1: his verdict. It was a diamond. The first major diamond 329 00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:26,720 Speaker 1: recorded in South Africa. It would come to be known 330 00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:30,280 Speaker 1: as the Eureka Diamond. Newspapers wrote a few small pieces 331 00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:33,639 Speaker 1: about this curious find. There was some local excitement, but 332 00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:37,200 Speaker 1: it did not start a stampede. Many people still believed 333 00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:41,280 Speaker 1: diamonds couldn't exist in Africa for centuries, they'd only come 334 00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:45,280 Speaker 1: from the riverbeds of India and Brazil. A lone stone 335 00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:49,240 Speaker 1: in the Cape felt like a freak accident, a geological fluke, 336 00:20:49,760 --> 00:20:54,119 Speaker 1: but two years later that illusion died. In eighteen sixty nine, 337 00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:57,399 Speaker 1: another shepherd was walking near the Orange River, but about 338 00:20:57,440 --> 00:21:00,840 Speaker 1: twenty miles northeast of where the Eureka diamond was found, 339 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:05,280 Speaker 1: when he noticed a peculiar stone. It was big, about 340 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:08,480 Speaker 1: eighty three and a half carrots. He wasn't sure what 341 00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:11,600 Speaker 1: it was, but he figured it might be valuable, so 342 00:21:11,680 --> 00:21:15,040 Speaker 1: he traded it away for five hundred sheep, ten oxen 343 00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:18,160 Speaker 1: and a horse. And the buyer it was the same 344 00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:21,680 Speaker 1: farmer that bought the shiny pebble two years earlier, Choke 345 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:25,280 Speaker 1: von Niekirk. Von nie Kirk, once again, sensing he was 346 00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:29,000 Speaker 1: holding something special, passed the stone along to Cape town merchants, 347 00:21:29,080 --> 00:21:32,160 Speaker 1: who sent it on to Europe. When it finally hit 348 00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:36,679 Speaker 1: the London market, the reaction was explosive. The stone sold 349 00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:39,600 Speaker 1: for a staggering amount. It was then cut and polished 350 00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:43,600 Speaker 1: into a glittering gem that became famous worldwide. It became 351 00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:47,160 Speaker 1: known as the Star of South Africa. The sale sent 352 00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:50,159 Speaker 1: a jolt through the diamond world. If a stone this 353 00:21:50,440 --> 00:21:53,240 Speaker 1: large was pulled out of the ground in South Africa, 354 00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:57,159 Speaker 1: that suggested something far more important than one lucky find. 355 00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:01,720 Speaker 1: It suggested a new source of diamonds. Newspapers in Europe 356 00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:05,480 Speaker 1: and America seized on the story. Headlines shouted about a 357 00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:08,959 Speaker 1: new diamond frontier. In an age obsessed with gold rushes 358 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:12,119 Speaker 1: and new worlds, the idea of an African diamond region 359 00:22:12,359 --> 00:22:17,879 Speaker 1: was irresistible. Prospectors, fortune hunters, hustlers and drifters started packing 360 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:22,040 Speaker 1: their bags. They'd come from Britain, Germany, hall in Australia 361 00:22:22,119 --> 00:22:25,359 Speaker 1: and the United States. They boarded ships for Cape Town, 362 00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:30,080 Speaker 1: then treked inland under brutal conditions, heat, dust, disease, and 363 00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:33,399 Speaker 1: all the dangers of a colonial frontier. Which started as 364 00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:38,080 Speaker 1: curiosity quickly became a phenomenon. The diamond rush had begun. 365 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:42,280 Speaker 1: Prospectors began combing through the Orange River and then the 366 00:22:42,359 --> 00:22:45,720 Speaker 1: val River that fed it. But then something strange happened. 367 00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:48,800 Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy one, a mixed race laborer found a 368 00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:51,200 Speaker 1: shiny stone on the land of the De Beer Brothers, 369 00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:54,960 Speaker 1: which was not near a river bed. This didn't completely 370 00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:58,879 Speaker 1: make sense. For centuries, diamonds were believed to originate in 371 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:02,359 Speaker 1: river beds because nearly all known stones from India and 372 00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:07,000 Speaker 1: Brazil were recovered from river deposits. This belief was reinforced 373 00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:09,560 Speaker 1: by the Eureka Diamond and the Star of the South, 374 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:13,920 Speaker 1: both found near river beds. People believed diamonds were somehow 375 00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:17,720 Speaker 1: river related, but what they didn't know was that diamonds 376 00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:21,560 Speaker 1: come from deep within the Earth's mantle, about sixty miles 377 00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:25,000 Speaker 1: below the Earth's surface. Under extreme heat and pressure, carbon 378 00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:29,480 Speaker 1: atoms crystallized to form diamonds, a hard, durable gem. These 379 00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:33,640 Speaker 1: diamonds are transported upward by rare volcanic eruptions through vertical 380 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:38,080 Speaker 1: conduits of magma that solidify into rock called kimberlight. Over 381 00:23:38,119 --> 00:23:41,720 Speaker 1: millions of years, erosion breaks down this soft volcanic rock, 382 00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:45,399 Speaker 1: releasing diamonds that are then carried and concentrated by rivers 383 00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:49,520 Speaker 1: into gravel. Beds. Rivers act as a kind of natural mind, 384 00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:53,639 Speaker 1: digging into the earth, eroding the volcanic rock, eventually exposing 385 00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:57,399 Speaker 1: the diamonds within the kimberlite pipe, then wiping away the soil. 386 00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:01,440 Speaker 1: But by eighteen seventy one no one identified this process. 387 00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:05,000 Speaker 1: So when that extrace laborer found a diamond on the 388 00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:08,480 Speaker 1: De Beer brother's property property that was nowhere near a river, 389 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:12,240 Speaker 1: people were a bit shocked. Word of his findings spread 390 00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:15,800 Speaker 1: to the prospectors on the valen Orange River. These diggers 391 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:19,720 Speaker 1: followed the rumors, then followed each other. Soon men began 392 00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:23,199 Speaker 1: drifting onto the de Beer property, scratching at the soil, 393 00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:29,320 Speaker 1: digging experimental pits, sleeping in tents and makeshift shelters. At 394 00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:32,120 Speaker 1: first it was a nuisance. Then it became a problem. 395 00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:36,480 Speaker 1: These independent diggers began invading the De Beer farm outright, 396 00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:40,560 Speaker 1: squatting on corners of the property, hammering stakes into the earth, 397 00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:45,760 Speaker 1: declaring claims without permission. In the colonial legal system, miners 398 00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:49,600 Speaker 1: had powerful friends that de Beer brothers did not. They 399 00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:52,800 Speaker 1: were not wealthy, they were not politically connected, they didn't 400 00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:55,640 Speaker 1: have private armies, and they were up against a government 401 00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:59,280 Speaker 1: that saw mining as progress and farming as an afterthought. 402 00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:02,200 Speaker 1: So when a series of test pits on their land 403 00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:05,800 Speaker 1: revealed some something staggering, a patch of diamond bearing ground 404 00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:09,080 Speaker 1: called Kolsberg copy, there was nothing the de Beer brothers 405 00:25:09,119 --> 00:25:11,359 Speaker 1: could do to stop what happened next. 406 00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:17,720 Speaker 3: Almost overnight, the farm exploded into chaos. Thousands of men 407 00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:21,320 Speaker 3: poured onto the site, hammering stakes into every square yard 408 00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:26,119 Speaker 3: of ground, marking off claims. Tents sprouted like mushrooms. The 409 00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:29,080 Speaker 3: law did not come to protect the farmers, it came 410 00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:33,920 Speaker 3: to organize the miners. New mining boards were created, colonial 411 00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:37,920 Speaker 3: bodies that overwhelmingly favored prospectors when disputes arose. 412 00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:38,920 Speaker 2: If the de. 413 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:43,000 Speaker 3: Beer brothers attempted to evict diggers, they were overruled. If 414 00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:45,280 Speaker 3: they tried to protect a patch of land, they were 415 00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:48,960 Speaker 3: told the ground was too valuable to sit idle. In theory, 416 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:52,000 Speaker 3: they still owned the farm, but in practice they were 417 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,800 Speaker 3: being pushed off of it, one claim at a time. 418 00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,280 Speaker 3: Facing the choice between losing everything in a legal fight 419 00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:02,720 Speaker 3: or salvaging what they could, the de Beer brothers began selling. First, 420 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:06,040 Speaker 3: they sold the rights to the individual claimholders. Then they 421 00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:09,960 Speaker 3: sold larger parcels. As it became clear the invasion wasn't 422 00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:15,480 Speaker 3: slowing down. Their property quickly became completely overrun. They walked 423 00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:18,360 Speaker 3: away from it with what they could because men from 424 00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:21,240 Speaker 3: all over the world were arriving to try their luck, 425 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:24,159 Speaker 3: and one of them was a sickly young Englishman with 426 00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:33,960 Speaker 3: big ambitions. His name was Cecil Rhads. Rhodes was not 427 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:36,840 Speaker 3: supposed to be a Titan of industry. He was supposed 428 00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:40,160 Speaker 3: to die young. Born in England in eighteen fifty three, 429 00:26:40,480 --> 00:26:43,000 Speaker 3: Rhodes was a frail child with weak lungs and a 430 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:47,080 Speaker 3: heart condition. His parents worried he wouldn't survive the British climate, 431 00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:49,520 Speaker 3: so as a teenager they shipped him off to what 432 00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:52,480 Speaker 3: they hoped would be a gentler place, the colony of 433 00:26:52,560 --> 00:26:56,040 Speaker 3: Natal in southern Africa, where his older brother Herbert was 434 00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:59,959 Speaker 3: trying to make it as a cotton farmer. The idea 435 00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:02,760 Speaker 3: was simple, fresh air and light work would lead to 436 00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:06,280 Speaker 3: maybe a few more years of life, but Cecil Roads 437 00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:11,800 Speaker 3: had other ideas. In the mid eighteen seventies, word reached 438 00:27:11,840 --> 00:27:15,160 Speaker 3: Herbert about diamonds being found far Inland on a farm 439 00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:19,119 Speaker 3: owned by two brothers named de Beer. Herbert staked out 440 00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:23,720 Speaker 3: a few small claims, then he wrote to Cecil come quickly. Cecil, 441 00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:28,960 Speaker 3: twenty somethings, sickly but intellectually sharp and wildly ambitious, decided 442 00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:32,919 Speaker 3: to join the rush. He hired an ox wagon, loaded 443 00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:36,080 Speaker 3: it with supplies, and set off on a grueling overland 444 00:27:36,119 --> 00:27:39,399 Speaker 3: trek that would take weeks. When he finally arrived at 445 00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:42,640 Speaker 3: the de Beer's former farm, he didn't find a quiet 446 00:27:42,640 --> 00:27:51,359 Speaker 3: piece of land. He walked into a frenzy. Prospectors discovered that, 447 00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:55,240 Speaker 3: unlike diamonds found in riverbeds, the diamonds found on this 448 00:27:55,359 --> 00:27:59,239 Speaker 3: and nearby properties weren't just on the surface. As they 449 00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:04,600 Speaker 3: dug straight down into the dirt, diamonds were consistently The 450 00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:08,880 Speaker 3: miners were slowly discovering that diamonds weren't a water phenomenon. 451 00:28:09,119 --> 00:28:12,520 Speaker 3: They were found in pipes deep in the ground. Rhodes 452 00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:15,120 Speaker 3: pitched his canvas tent on the edge of what used 453 00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:17,679 Speaker 3: to be a small hill and looked out over a 454 00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:22,480 Speaker 3: sea of humanity. Tents jammed every open space, Smoke from 455 00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:27,360 Speaker 3: cookfires hung low, Men shouted, cursed. Wheelbarrows carried rock, men 456 00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:31,119 Speaker 3: dragged their digging equipment. The ground itself was being eaten, 457 00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:35,320 Speaker 3: sliced into a giant open crater. As hundreds of adjacent 458 00:28:35,359 --> 00:28:39,440 Speaker 3: claims descended in ragged steps towards the center. Rhodes wrote 459 00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:42,560 Speaker 3: home to his mother, trying to describe what he was seeing. 460 00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:45,320 Speaker 3: He told her to imagine. 461 00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:48,240 Speaker 2: A small round hill about one hundred eighty yards broad 462 00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:51,479 Speaker 2: and one hundred twenty yards long. All around it a 463 00:28:51,520 --> 00:28:52,920 Speaker 2: mass of white tents. 464 00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:55,880 Speaker 3: He said, it looked like an immense number of ant. 465 00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:58,640 Speaker 2: Heaps covered with black ants as thick as can. 466 00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:04,160 Speaker 3: Be, except the ants were men. This encampment, chaotic, dangerous, filthy, 467 00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:07,480 Speaker 3: and feverish, was second only to Cape Town and population 468 00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:11,040 Speaker 3: around fifty thousand. Diggers swarmed to this patch of ground. 469 00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,719 Speaker 3: This place would later become the city of Kimberly. The 470 00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:17,400 Speaker 3: pipes that carried the diamonds from deep below the earth's 471 00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:21,040 Speaker 3: surface would be named Kimberlight after the city. But as 472 00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:24,560 Speaker 3: Rhads wrote his mother, the town more resembled a human beehive. 473 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:29,120 Speaker 3: Roads Like everyone else, began with a claim. He purchased 474 00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:31,640 Speaker 3: a small plot on the former De Beer land and 475 00:29:31,720 --> 00:29:35,120 Speaker 3: started digging. But he wasn't just a prospector. He was 476 00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:38,760 Speaker 3: an observer. It didn't take him long to notice something crucial. 477 00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:41,840 Speaker 3: A fortune could not only be found in the dirt 478 00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:44,160 Speaker 3: It could also be found in the needs of the 479 00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:47,920 Speaker 3: men digging it. Life in the Kimberly diggings was brutal. 480 00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:52,200 Speaker 3: The African sun was merciless, The dust got into everything. 481 00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:55,880 Speaker 3: Water was scarce and often foul. Food needed to be 482 00:29:55,920 --> 00:30:00,240 Speaker 3: brought in from long distances. Almost every comfort costs money. 483 00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:04,560 Speaker 3: Rhodes watched the lines at the water. He saw how 484 00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:06,840 Speaker 3: much men were willing to pay for a cold drink, 485 00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:10,840 Speaker 3: a meal, and a basic tool. So he started small, 486 00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:14,120 Speaker 3: importing ice cream and selling it to the exhausted diggers. 487 00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:17,680 Speaker 3: He sold jugs of water at a profit. He became, 488 00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:20,880 Speaker 3: in a sense, a miner of miners, and as he did, 489 00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:24,080 Speaker 3: he noticed one more thing. Water was not just a 490 00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:27,840 Speaker 3: comfort issue. It was an engineering nightmare. The deeper the 491 00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:30,880 Speaker 3: diggers got in their individual claims, the more they hit 492 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:39,520 Speaker 3: groundwater pits flooded, walls became unstable, collapses killed workers. Each 493 00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:42,440 Speaker 3: claim owner needed two kinds of water solutions at once, 494 00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:46,440 Speaker 3: fresh drinking water for laborers and a way to get 495 00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:49,640 Speaker 3: rid of the water filling their pits. 496 00:30:50,960 --> 00:31:00,120 Speaker 1: Enter the steam pump, want to listen to Red Pilled 497 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:03,480 Speaker 1: America ad Free then become a backstage of soss sscribber. 498 00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:06,680 Speaker 1: Just go to Redpilled America dot com and click join 499 00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:09,680 Speaker 1: in the top menu. Join the fambam and help us 500 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:15,200 Speaker 1: save America one story at a time. Welcome back to 501 00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:18,560 Speaker 1: Red Pilled America. So for the Kimberly miners of the 502 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:22,200 Speaker 1: late eighteen seventies, water was not just a comfort issue. 503 00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:25,800 Speaker 1: It was an engineering nightmare. The deeper the diggers got 504 00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:30,560 Speaker 1: in their individual claims, the more they hit groundwater pits flooded, 505 00:31:30,840 --> 00:31:35,960 Speaker 1: walls became unstable, collapses killed workers. Each claim owner needed 506 00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:39,520 Speaker 1: two kinds of water solutions at once, fresh drinking water 507 00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:41,520 Speaker 1: for laborers and a way to get rid of the 508 00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:44,680 Speaker 1: water filling their pits. Enter the steam pump. 509 00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:50,280 Speaker 3: At that time, there was only one steam pump in 510 00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:54,360 Speaker 3: all of South Africa. Rhoades realized that whoever controlled that 511 00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:58,640 Speaker 3: pump controlled the survival of the Kimberly mines. So he 512 00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:02,720 Speaker 3: made a wild play. He scraped together everything he had, 513 00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:05,960 Speaker 3: every bit of profit from his ice cream and water ventures, 514 00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:11,440 Speaker 3: and bought that one pump. Almost immediately his Gambol paid off, 515 00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,920 Speaker 3: water began to flood the central mine. The walls of 516 00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:18,120 Speaker 3: the big Hole started to cave. Thousands of workers had 517 00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:21,200 Speaker 3: to be pulled out With Ropes, claim owners were staring 518 00:32:21,200 --> 00:32:24,640 Speaker 3: at financial ruin. There was only one machine capable of 519 00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:29,400 Speaker 3: saving their pits, Rhades pump. He could now charge whatever 520 00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:34,440 Speaker 3: he wanted. The money poured in. He reinvested his profits 521 00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:37,520 Speaker 3: into more pumps from England. When his competitors tried to 522 00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:41,000 Speaker 3: follow his lead and import similar equipment, he used every 523 00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:45,920 Speaker 3: trick he could, undercutting, out, maneuvering, leveraging relationships to squeeze 524 00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:49,760 Speaker 3: them out. Before long, Roads had something new in Kimberly, 525 00:32:50,080 --> 00:32:53,560 Speaker 3: a water pumping monopoly. If you wanted to keep your 526 00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:57,680 Speaker 3: claim dry, you paid Cecil Roads, but some claim owners 527 00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:00,800 Speaker 3: couldn't afford to pay in cash, so they paid him 528 00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:04,800 Speaker 3: in shares. Over time, as more pits flooded and more 529 00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:09,120 Speaker 3: owners fell behind, Rhodes began to accumulate slivers of ownership 530 00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:12,760 Speaker 3: in dozens of claims. When a mine was in serious trouble, 531 00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:16,120 Speaker 3: he took it over outright. By the age of twenty seven, 532 00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:19,400 Speaker 3: Cecil Rhodes was no longer just the sickly younger brother 533 00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:22,000 Speaker 3: of a cotton farmer. He was one of the largest 534 00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:26,080 Speaker 3: individual mine owners in Kimberly, and this was just the beginning. 535 00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:29,960 Speaker 3: Despite the chaos of the Diggings, Rhades still dreamt beyond 536 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:33,000 Speaker 3: the pit. He had an almost mystical belief in the 537 00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:36,880 Speaker 3: destiny of the British Empire. He wanted Britain to stretch 538 00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:40,600 Speaker 3: uninterrupted from the Cape of Good Hope to Cairo. He 539 00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:43,880 Speaker 3: even fantasized about one day bringing the United States back 540 00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:47,400 Speaker 3: under the British Crown. To work on those ambitions and 541 00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:50,560 Speaker 3: to cement his status, he returned to England to study 542 00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:54,600 Speaker 3: at Oriel College, Oxford. He'd spend terms at the university 543 00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:58,760 Speaker 3: absorbing the language and ideas of imperial philosophy, then would 544 00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:00,880 Speaker 3: rush back to South Africa to keep an eye on 545 00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:05,040 Speaker 3: his businesses. When he finally he decided to consolidate his holdings, 546 00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:09,360 Speaker 3: he did something symbolically powerful. He formed a new mining 547 00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:12,280 Speaker 3: company and named it after the farm where he bought 548 00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:16,520 Speaker 3: his first claim, the De Beers Mining Company. But Rhodes 549 00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:19,920 Speaker 3: didn't just want a company. He wanted a kingdom with 550 00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:23,480 Speaker 3: a corporate logo. So he went to London and applied 551 00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:26,960 Speaker 3: to the British Colonial Office for something called a royal charter. 552 00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:30,600 Speaker 3: In theory, a charter is just a legal document, a 553 00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:34,239 Speaker 3: grant from the Crown that recognizes a company. In practice, 554 00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:37,440 Speaker 3: for a certain class of imperial corporations, it's a license 555 00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:40,880 Speaker 3: to behave like a government. A royal charter can give 556 00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:44,840 Speaker 3: a private company the power to build railroads and telegraph lines, 557 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:48,799 Speaker 3: and to treaties, annex and administered territories, raise its own 558 00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:53,080 Speaker 3: police and even armed forces. The British had given charters 559 00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,520 Speaker 3: like this to the companies that ruled whole swaths of 560 00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:59,480 Speaker 3: India and Africa. Now Cecil Roads wanted one for his 561 00:34:59,600 --> 00:35:02,799 Speaker 3: mining enterprise, and in eighteen eighty he got it to 562 00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:05,480 Speaker 3: be was no longer just a collection of claims in 563 00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:08,800 Speaker 3: a muddy hole. It was a chartered company with quasi 564 00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:12,800 Speaker 3: governmental powers, a corporate state embedded inside the British Empire. 565 00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:16,400 Speaker 3: And Roads had even bigger plans because there was a 566 00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:20,160 Speaker 3: problem looming on the horizon, too many diamonds. 567 00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:24,080 Speaker 1: By the late eighteen eighties, the Kimberly mines were producing 568 00:35:24,200 --> 00:35:28,080 Speaker 1: staggering volumes of diamonds. What began as a trickle became 569 00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:31,520 Speaker 1: a flood. With so many competing mine owners, everyone was 570 00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:35,640 Speaker 1: racing to dig faster, go deeper, sell more, and that's 571 00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:40,080 Speaker 1: when basic economics kicked in. When supply explodes, prices fall. 572 00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:43,759 Speaker 1: This explosion in diamond supply was violating one of the 573 00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:47,120 Speaker 1: primary rules of value. We asked Kevin de Merit of 574 00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:50,399 Speaker 1: Lear Capital why gold has been viewed as valuable over 575 00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:51,480 Speaker 1: thousands of years. 576 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:54,080 Speaker 4: I think the biggest reason is because it takes effort 577 00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:55,799 Speaker 4: to pull it out of the ground and there's a 578 00:35:55,840 --> 00:36:06,799 Speaker 4: limited supply. So from a monetary standpoint, if you want 579 00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:09,920 Speaker 4: to have something very strong over long periods of time, 580 00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:12,560 Speaker 4: it needs to have some sort of limited supply. 581 00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:15,520 Speaker 1: But with this massive amount of diamonds coming out of 582 00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:19,279 Speaker 1: the Kimberly mines, diamonds were breaking this limited supply rule. 583 00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:23,200 Speaker 1: Rhodes looked at the numbers and saw the nightmare scenario. 584 00:36:23,680 --> 00:36:26,640 Speaker 1: If the world saw diamonds pouring out of South Africa, 585 00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:29,400 Speaker 1: if the public began to think of diamonds as common, 586 00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:34,120 Speaker 1: the entire myth would collapse. These stones didn't have intrinsic 587 00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:37,319 Speaker 1: utility like oil or iron. They weren't being used as 588 00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:40,400 Speaker 1: currency like gold and silver had been for thousands of years. 589 00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:43,560 Speaker 1: They were no longer rare and couldn't be melted down 590 00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:46,640 Speaker 1: and molded into coins that were identical to one another. 591 00:36:46,719 --> 00:36:50,239 Speaker 1: Like gold and silver, Each gem diamond was different, Their 592 00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:54,359 Speaker 1: value depended on scarcity and status. If the industry kept 593 00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:57,640 Speaker 1: behaving like a free for all, this scarcity illusion would 594 00:36:57,680 --> 00:37:03,640 Speaker 1: vanish and diamonds would never be considered rare again. Rhodes 595 00:37:03,640 --> 00:37:08,160 Speaker 1: decided there was only one solution monopoly. The diamond business, 596 00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:12,040 Speaker 1: he believed, must be controlled by a single hand, his hand. 597 00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:17,200 Speaker 1: Only a centralized authority could throttle supply, hold back production, 598 00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:21,080 Speaker 1: and maintain the idea that diamonds were scarce and precious. 599 00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:24,520 Speaker 1: But there was a problem. He was not the only 600 00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:29,160 Speaker 1: king in Kimberly. Standing across from him was another empire builder, 601 00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:33,960 Speaker 1: a man named Barney Barnado. Barnatto controlled the Kimberly Mine, 602 00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:37,360 Speaker 1: one of the richest diamond pipes in the region. Roads 603 00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:41,200 Speaker 1: through de Beers controlled other major mines, including the one 604 00:37:41,320 --> 00:37:44,680 Speaker 1: on the original de Beer farm. Between them, they sat 605 00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:47,280 Speaker 1: on top of roughly ninety five percent of the world's 606 00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:51,600 Speaker 1: diamond production. Whoever won this duel would control the global 607 00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:55,000 Speaker 1: diamond market. Rhoades knew he couldn't win a straight fight 608 00:37:55,080 --> 00:37:58,480 Speaker 1: with his own money. He needed deep pockets, someone with 609 00:37:58,560 --> 00:38:01,320 Speaker 1: the capital and the appetite to bet on a monopoly, 610 00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:04,720 Speaker 1: So he went to a banking dynasty that had already 611 00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:08,280 Speaker 1: been quietly intertwined with the global gem trade for decades. 612 00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:12,880 Speaker 1: Cecil roads went to the Rothschilds. By the nineteenth century, 613 00:38:13,040 --> 00:38:17,280 Speaker 1: the Rothschild family was a financial superpower. From their founding 614 00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:20,360 Speaker 1: in Frankfort, they had built a network of banking houses 615 00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:24,800 Speaker 1: in London, Paris, Vienna and Naples. The under rote government loans, 616 00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:30,120 Speaker 1: financed railways, backed industrial ventures, and importantly for our story, 617 00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:32,920 Speaker 1: they had been involved in the diamond trade for years. 618 00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:38,280 Speaker 1: Rothschild's bank had financed European gem merchants, backed London syndicates 619 00:38:38,320 --> 00:38:41,080 Speaker 1: that bought rough diamonds, loaned money to cutters in Antwerp 620 00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:45,800 Speaker 1: and Amsterdam, and appraised stones for royalty. They understood diamonds 621 00:38:45,960 --> 00:38:54,080 Speaker 1: not as romance, but as numbers. Nathaniel or Natty Rothschild 622 00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:57,200 Speaker 1: sat at the center of the London branch and m 623 00:38:57,280 --> 00:39:01,160 Speaker 1: Rothschild and sons, with access to enormous pools of capital. 624 00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:05,120 Speaker 1: Rhodes approached him with a pit. If Kimberly remained divided 625 00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:09,520 Speaker 1: between competing companies, diamonds would flood the market, prices would fall, 626 00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:13,320 Speaker 1: the illusion of rarity would be destroyed. Everyone would lose, 627 00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:17,360 Speaker 1: including the Wrothchilds. But if the Beers could swallow its rivals. 628 00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:21,480 Speaker 1: If one company could control production, stockpile excess stones, and 629 00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:25,040 Speaker 1: release them in measured quantities, then diamonds could keep the 630 00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:29,200 Speaker 1: illusion of being permanently scarce, prices could be kept high, 631 00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:31,799 Speaker 1: and the wroth Childs could own a piece of a 632 00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:37,440 Speaker 1: cartel that manufactured rarity. Wrothchilds agreed with their backing Roads 633 00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:41,720 Speaker 1: had the financial artillery to go after Barnardo. What followed 634 00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:45,280 Speaker 1: is not a gunfight, but a stock market war. Roads, 635 00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:49,840 Speaker 1: in his banking allies, began quietly accumulating shares in Barnado's company, 636 00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:54,120 Speaker 1: Kimberly Central. At the same time, they used another tactic. 637 00:39:54,320 --> 00:39:57,880 Speaker 1: They opened up the taps. De Beers ramped up production. 638 00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:02,360 Speaker 1: Diamonds flooded the market, prices slid. Panic rippled through investors 639 00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:07,319 Speaker 1: who owned Kimberly stock. Some sold, others pledged shares as collateral. 640 00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:11,480 Speaker 1: Rhodes groups stood ready to buy. Barnado fought back, securing 641 00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:16,759 Speaker 1: his own financing to consolidate his position, but slowly, almost invisibly, 642 00:40:17,040 --> 00:40:21,080 Speaker 1: control began to tilt. In one bold move, Rhads offered 643 00:40:21,120 --> 00:40:24,000 Speaker 1: to buy a crucial piece of the Kimberly mine from 644 00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:27,799 Speaker 1: French shareholders at an eye watering price, not because the 645 00:40:27,880 --> 00:40:30,600 Speaker 1: ground was worth that much, but because owning it would 646 00:40:30,640 --> 00:40:33,520 Speaker 1: block Bernado from turning his big mining hole in Kimberly 647 00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:39,920 Speaker 1: into a unified operation. Barnado countered raising his bid. It 648 00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:43,280 Speaker 1: seemed like he'd won, until Rhodes proposed a new deal. 649 00:40:43,719 --> 00:40:46,600 Speaker 1: He suggested that instead of torching each other with higher 650 00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:50,520 Speaker 1: and higher offers, Bernardo could withdraw his bid. Roads would 651 00:40:50,600 --> 00:40:53,759 Speaker 1: then buy the property at the lower price than immediately 652 00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:57,719 Speaker 1: resell it to Bernardo in exchange for cash and, more importantly, 653 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:03,799 Speaker 1: a large block of Kimberly central shares. Bernardo, thinking he'd 654 00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:08,600 Speaker 1: outsmarted his rival, agreed. He saved money, gained operational control, 655 00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:12,960 Speaker 1: and handed Rose a trojan horse a significant foothold into 656 00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:19,000 Speaker 1: his company. From there, the squeeze intensified. With Rothschild's capital 657 00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:22,920 Speaker 1: and allies across Europe. Rhodes continued buying stock in Barnado's 658 00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:26,840 Speaker 1: company as he and his partners quietly passed key thresholds 659 00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:30,400 Speaker 1: of ownership. Barnardo started to realize what was happening, but 660 00:41:30,520 --> 00:41:34,360 Speaker 1: by March eighteen eighty eight, it was too late. Rhodes 661 00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:39,120 Speaker 1: block controlled enough shares to dictate terms Barnardo, was forced 662 00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:42,960 Speaker 1: to agree to a merger. Kimberly Central into Beer's joined 663 00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:47,600 Speaker 1: into one new entity. De Beer's consolidated minds. By eighteen 664 00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:51,480 Speaker 1: ninety cecil Roads, through Debiers and his alliance with Rothschild, 665 00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:54,960 Speaker 1: controlled more than ninety five percent of the world's diamond production. 666 00:41:55,400 --> 00:41:59,680 Speaker 1: The first true diamond cartel was born. With his rivals absorbed, 667 00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:02,719 Speaker 1: Rhodes could finally do what he'd wanted all along. He 668 00:42:02,719 --> 00:42:06,720 Speaker 1: could make diamonds scarce. He ordered mines to reduce output, 669 00:42:07,040 --> 00:42:11,160 Speaker 1: closed some operations and slowed others. Instead of dumping everything 670 00:42:11,200 --> 00:42:14,319 Speaker 1: on the market, de Beers began selling only what the 671 00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:18,480 Speaker 1: world could absorb at high prices. The excess millions of 672 00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:22,520 Speaker 1: carrots of stones were put into volts. De Beer's stockpiled 673 00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:26,719 Speaker 1: when demand dipped, the stockpile grew when demand rose. A 674 00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:30,759 Speaker 1: carefully measured trickle was released. The public never saw the 675 00:42:30,760 --> 00:42:34,200 Speaker 1: full scale of production. They saw only what De Beers 676 00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:39,640 Speaker 1: wanted them to see. At the same time Roads consolidated distribution, 677 00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:43,000 Speaker 1: he created a single channel for selling De Beer's diamonds, 678 00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:47,560 Speaker 1: a London syndicate that bought the entire output at fixed prices. 679 00:42:48,120 --> 00:42:51,320 Speaker 1: They resold stones to cutters in Antwerp and other centers. 680 00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:54,839 Speaker 1: If you wanted South African diamonds, you bought them from 681 00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:59,319 Speaker 1: this channel at De Beer's terms. Anyone who tried to 682 00:42:59,360 --> 00:43:02,640 Speaker 1: operate outside the system, a rogue producer, a merchant with 683 00:43:02,719 --> 00:43:06,279 Speaker 1: acts access to off market stones, they found themselves squeezed 684 00:43:06,480 --> 00:43:09,080 Speaker 1: or forced into a buy out, or maybe they would 685 00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:12,879 Speaker 1: discover that their access to credit dried up, or their 686 00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:23,279 Speaker 1: shipments mysteriously struggled to find buyers. Bit by bit, the 687 00:43:23,320 --> 00:43:32,400 Speaker 1: Beers extended its reach from the pit to the jeweler's bench, mining, stockpiling, pricing, distribution, 688 00:43:32,960 --> 00:43:36,640 Speaker 1: all governed by one company's strategy. It was the early 689 00:43:36,719 --> 00:43:40,520 Speaker 1: blueprint of what would later be called the central selling organization, 690 00:43:40,880 --> 00:43:44,239 Speaker 1: the command center of the diamond cartel. And as if 691 00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:47,759 Speaker 1: this corporate power wasn't enough, Rhodes added political power to 692 00:43:47,760 --> 00:43:51,440 Speaker 1: the mix. In eighteen ninety he became Prime Minister of 693 00:43:51,520 --> 00:43:55,120 Speaker 1: the Cape Colony. He controlled not just mines and markets, 694 00:43:55,239 --> 00:43:57,960 Speaker 1: but laws and borders. He would go on to carve 695 00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:03,240 Speaker 1: out two colonies, Rhodesia and Northern Rhodesia that bore his name. Then, 696 00:44:03,280 --> 00:44:05,799 Speaker 1: in nineteen oh two, at the age of forty eight, 697 00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:10,080 Speaker 1: and the pinnacle of his power. Cecil Rhads died, his body, 698 00:44:10,120 --> 00:44:13,120 Speaker 1: exhausted by the same frailties he'd been sent to Africa 699 00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:18,000 Speaker 1: to escape. He left no wife, no children, no direct errors. 700 00:44:18,440 --> 00:44:22,160 Speaker 1: He left his fortune to Oxford University to fund scholarships 701 00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:25,400 Speaker 1: in his name, and he left behind something else, a 702 00:44:25,480 --> 00:44:29,880 Speaker 1: diamond machine powerful enough to shape the global perception of value. 703 00:44:30,120 --> 00:44:32,960 Speaker 1: For the first time in history, one company had the 704 00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:36,879 Speaker 1: practical ability to decide how rare diamonds feel and how 705 00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:39,840 Speaker 1: much they were worth. But Rhodes would not be the 706 00:44:39,920 --> 00:44:42,920 Speaker 1: last mastermind to sit at the center of this machine, 707 00:44:43,120 --> 00:44:46,440 Speaker 1: because within a year of his death, another young entrepreneur 708 00:44:46,800 --> 00:44:50,480 Speaker 1: arrived in South Africa, a German Jewish immigrant who looked 709 00:44:50,480 --> 00:44:53,319 Speaker 1: at the diamond cartel Roads built and decided to turn 710 00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:57,320 Speaker 1: it into something even more formidable. If Cecil Rhodes created 711 00:44:57,360 --> 00:45:00,600 Speaker 1: the diamond monopoly, Ernest Oppenheimer would perfect it. 712 00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:03,320 Speaker 3: Coming up on Red Kildameer. 713 00:45:03,480 --> 00:45:07,880 Speaker 1: The diamond cartel had survived wars, revolutions, new minds, and 714 00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:10,799 Speaker 1: political upheaval, but it was about to face something far 715 00:45:10,840 --> 00:45:13,120 Speaker 1: more dangerous, a collapse in belief. 716 00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:17,360 Speaker 3: Red Pilled America's a iHeartRadio original podcast. It's owned and 717 00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:21,360 Speaker 3: produced by Patrick Carrelci and me Adriana Cortez for Informed Ventures. 718 00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:24,120 Speaker 3: Now you can get ad free access to our entire 719 00:45:24,160 --> 00:45:28,080 Speaker 3: catalog of episodes by becoming a backstage subscriber. To subscribe, 720 00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:31,160 Speaker 3: just visit Redpilled America dot com and could join in 721 00:45:31,200 --> 00:45:33,120 Speaker 3: the top menu. Thanks for listening.