Chapter 4

"I need hardly point out to you that the whole diamond market is an artificial one. The output of stones from the mines has to be limited to prevent a slump--to keep prices up. And what would happen if the market was swamped with stones worth a king's ransom each as prices go to-day and costing a fiver to produce was too impossible to contemplate. It meant, of course, absolute ruin to me and others in my position--to say nothing of hundreds of big jewellers and dealers. "I pointed this out to Professor Goodman, b…