History of the diamond

Antwerp’s history as the world’s diamond capital started many years ago. Here you find a short introduction to its brilliant past!

We don’t know exactly where the first diamonds were discovered, but for hundreds of years all diamonds that entered Europe, came from India. Trade relations between East Asia and Europe flourished from Roman times until the 16th century when Europeans settled there. One of the two principal diamond trade routes passed through Venice in Italy. The city became the mercantile epicentre of the Western world and monopolised the diamond trade.

The final destination of these Venetian diamonds and Bruges’ other economic activities moved to Antwerp.

Antwerp was a growing and a thriving city in the 16th century. Bruges was in Flanders, a thriving cutting centre. Bruges maintained its prominent position until the 14th century. But it lost its importance 50 years later, because the waterway leading to the port gradually silted up. As a result, the diamond trth century. It also played a dominant role in the development of new diamond cutting techniques. Prominent people like Francois I, the king of France, placed his orders in Antwerp instead of calling on the diamond cutters in Paris.

Antwerp became the commercial heart of Europe: over 40% of all goods passed through its port. But internal struggles and the growing importance of Amsterdam meant a decrease in Antwerp’s influence on the diamond market. However, diamond trade flourished and the city’s prestige remained intact until the 17th century

By the end of the 17th century, Amsterdam entered the international economic scene. It offered religious and civil liberty and it acquired a monopoly of the diamond trade and industry. From then on Amsterdam merchants kept the best stones for their own cutters and exported the inferior ones to Antwerp. This didn’t discourage the Antwerp craftsmen who turned these inferior stones into fine gems.

Diamonds were discovered in South Africa in 1866. A few years later the Kimberley era began and the De Beers Consolidated Mines started large scale mining activities. Enormous quantities of rough diamonds were exported to Europe and contributed to Antwerp’s status as diamond capital. The diamond industry in Antwerp revived and it has been the diamond centre of the world ever since.

The depression in the 1930’s had an enormous impact on the diamond trade: many cutting shops had to be shut down. When the Second World War started, many Jewish businessmen fled abroad where they continued to do business. In an attempt to save as much of the diamond stock as possible, the 500 Belgian diamond traders who fled to the UK took the stones there. With the help of the British government an organisation known as the Correspondence Office for the Diamond Industry was set up. This institution registered the diamonds and kept them safe during the war.

Thanks to this organisation many of the diamonds returned to their owners when the war ended. After the war, the Diamond High Council was founded. This central administration was indispensable for all the people in the diamond trade.