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Thursday 25 March 2021 16.00 - 17.15
E-8 LAB05 Diamonds in Jewish Economic History
E
Network: Labour Chair: Veerle Vanden Dealen
Organizer: Karin Hofmeester Discussant: Veerle Vanden Dealen
Saskia Coenen Snyder : 'Like Dewdrops in the Waving Grass': the Early Diamond Trade in South Africa
While diamonds have a longer global history, it is the 1870s that witnessed an unprecedented boom in diamond extraction and long-distance trade. Up to this point, diamonds had been found primarily in India and Brazil, in so-called alluvial deposits, i.e., in the soil of riverbeds where over the course of ... (Show more)
While diamonds have a longer global history, it is the 1870s that witnessed an unprecedented boom in diamond extraction and long-distance trade. Up to this point, diamonds had been found primarily in India and Brazil, in so-called alluvial deposits, i.e., in the soil of riverbeds where over the course of millions of years gemstones had been pushed to the surface by means of volcanic pressure and dispersed by rivers. To extract them from the soil, workers used sieves and water, a very labor-intensive process that produced comparatively small yields.

South Africa was not on any diamond prospector’s radar in the mid-nineteenth century. The discovery of diamonds in the late 1860s, however, put South Africa on the map and changed the Cape colony from a liability to a brilliant asset.

This paper analyzes the role of Jewish traders, merchants and companies in the unfolding of the South African mining industry, and the importance of Jewish commercial connections to kinship branches in Europe. Already engaged in local and long-distance trade, Jews in the Northern Cape engaged in what Mary Louise Pratt termed a contact zone, “a space of colonial encounters [where] people geographically and historically separate come into contact with each other and establish ongoing relations.” South-African as well as Anglo-German and Lithuanian Jews interacted on a daily basis with Boer farmers, non-Jewish immigrants from a host of different countries, and native Africans, all of whom flocked to the diamond fields and rendered it a contact zone for imperial encounters.

Jewish merchants, I argue, were part and parcel of the earliest development and growth of the transatlantic diamond trade. Indeed, Jews on three continents (Europe, South Africa, and the United States) became key players in this capitalist enterprise, creating a successful, long-term commodity chain between Cape Town, London, Amsterdam, and New York. An examination of diamonds and the routes they traveled, of the people who mined, processed, and sold them, illuminates the centrality of Jews to the industry. (Show less)

Karin Hofmeester : The ANDB: a Local Trade Union in a Global Industry
The Amsterdam diamond polishing industry was long an important hub in the global diamond commodity chain. Between 1894 and the 1920's when the industry was at its height, the General Diamond Worker's Trade Union was a very powerful union that had a strong impact on the industry and its workers, ... (Show more)
The Amsterdam diamond polishing industry was long an important hub in the global diamond commodity chain. Between 1894 and the 1920's when the industry was at its height, the General Diamond Worker's Trade Union was a very powerful union that had a strong impact on the industry and its workers, both Jews and non-Jews. Who exactly were these trade union members, how were they disciplined, what was the role of ethnic-religious background, gender, familie and neighbourhood ties in the make up of the industry, and the trade union? (Show less)

Joris Kok : ‘Students of the Craft’: Occupational Mobility of Dutch Jews in the Pre-war Amsterdam Diamond Industry
When the Dutch Jews were emancipated in 1796 destitute living conditions were widespread in the Jewish community in Amsterdam. Jews were either formally or informally excluded from most occupations, forcing many to make a living in trade, textiles, or peddling. The diamond industry—brought to Amsterdam by Sephardic Jews at the ... (Show more)
When the Dutch Jews were emancipated in 1796 destitute living conditions were widespread in the Jewish community in Amsterdam. Jews were either formally or informally excluded from most occupations, forcing many to make a living in trade, textiles, or peddling. The diamond industry—brought to Amsterdam by Sephardic Jews at the end of the sixteenth century—did not see the exclusion of Jews and therefore provided a respectable occupation for a fortunate and select few. From the middle of the nineteenth century onwards, however, the number of diamond workers grew exponentially in Amsterdam, first due to the diamond discovery in Bahía, Brazil, in 1845, but more significantly by the discovery in Kimberley, South Africa, in 1869. The latter led to an increase of skilled diamond workers from 2100 in 1873 to roughly 10,000 in the 1890s, two-thirds of which were Jewish. Thousands of families now found their livelihoods in ‘the craft.’ The founding of the General Diamond Workers’ Union (ANDB) in 1894 further improved the lives of these workers by lobbying for the improvement of their working and living conditions; the 8-hour working day, achieved in 1911, being the most prominent example. However, successes were short-lived as the increasing competition from Antwerp—fuelled by colonial diamonds—would cause the Amsterdam diamond industry to gradually implode.
In this paper I aim to analyse the role the diamond industry and the ANDB played in the process of social mobility of Dutch Jews. Using individual-level data from the extensive administration of the ANDB, intergenerational occupational mobility of apprentices in the first decades of the twentieth century are studied. Career mobility within the industry is examined using over 20.000 membership cards. Lastly, career shifts away from the industry—especially in the 1920s and 30s—are discussed. (Show less)

Tijl Vanneste : Diamond Trade gone Wrong: Commercial Litigation & the Merchants’ Style
In August 1727, the merchant Edward Fenwick sold diamonds to Andrew Levy for 2,800 pounds sterling. Shortly after concluding the sale, Levy fled, without having paid for the precious stones he had purchased. Fenwick started writing to his correspondents abroad, expressing his despair and asking for information regarding Levy’s whereabouts. ... (Show more)
In August 1727, the merchant Edward Fenwick sold diamonds to Andrew Levy for 2,800 pounds sterling. Shortly after concluding the sale, Levy fled, without having paid for the precious stones he had purchased. Fenwick started writing to his correspondents abroad, expressing his despair and asking for information regarding Levy’s whereabouts. He wanted his correspondents to help him apprehend the fugitive. The final outcome of this case is unclear, but the letters sent by Fenwick demonstrate a number of key issues regarding the functioning of long-distance trade in the early modern period. They exemplify problems of trust, present in the commercial transaction between Levy and Fenwick going wrong, but also in the business relationships the latter maintained with a wider web of correspondents. The letters also unveil options of sanctioning cheating traders and the importance of business correspondence in providing personal information. Using the Fenwick-Levy case, I will discuss these crucial aspects of early modern international trade in order to provide an image of the way a ‘merchants’ style’ – the habits and customs used by traders to deal with each other. Litigation was not an uncommon way to resolve conflict in this ‘merchants’ style’ and even used to fortify ties between traders. (Show less)



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