E101Economics : Land
To illustrate where Land turns to Capital and Entrepreneurs we should to discuss the Diamond business.
Diamonds go back 2 Billion years.
What gets squirted out in the Kimberly Pipe is a molten belch. Current Geo Economic theory says that there are probably diamonds the size of cars driving around in the mantle that could take a wrong turn and pop out at any moment. Not Nature, Australopithecus, Homo erectus, The Khoisan's, The Dutch, The Griquas, The Basters, The Afrikaners or The German and British Settlers were able to commercialize this resource. For 2 Billion Years less 140, no one turns the idea into money until a brilliant strategist, Cecil John Rhodes comes up with the idea that he is going to control the flow of Diamonds onto the market and take Millions of Dollars off the Jews and Homosexuals, years in advance of him actually taking the stones out of the ground!
The money does not comes from Africa, Africans, African traders, African workers, Settler greed, Rhodes or the Oppenheimers. The money comes from the Ghettos of Europe via the Merchant Bankers of the USA.
Generations of Griquas had stepped over the shiny stones until, in 1866, Schalk van Niekerk purchased the Eureka Diamond from the Erasmus family. Opportunists piled into New Rush grabbing at the alluvial deposits, levelling Colesburg Kopie shovelling out the ever deeper sand. By the time their overcrowded, waterlogged claims hit blue-stone, the diamond industry was in turmoil.
In nineteenth century Europe, Jews are not welcome at the Club and homosexuality is a jail-able pffense.
Rhodes has to sell the idea that diamonds have lasting value. He is faced with the immediate record that under the Afrikaners and Settlers (Kimberley's 1880 version of white monopoly capital) , the Diamond Business has the attention span of a two year old. Under their watch, the DeBeers brothers sell DuToitspan for £8,000 and by 1875 most diamond traders are bankrupt. The stressed out participants left are seeking to get out. Swimming against the tide of popular opinion, Rhodes is able to raise enough capital in Europe to buy out the bit players and make De Beers the first really important public Company in Africa.
Using the charm and showmanship of a nineteenth century Larry Page and Elton John, Rhodes becomes the richest man in the world in a little over five years. The Jews and the Homosexuals believe him, The Jewish Homosexuals bankroll him and the Anti Semites and homophobics are gobsmacked. The Afrikaners become Cattle farmers, The Settlers moved off to Joburg in search of Gold and the Sothos show little interest in Diamond mining beyond getting together enough savings to buy a rifle and head for the rurals.
Rhodes is the ultimate outsider. Reviled for his sexuality, he turns to other victims of predjudice and they build an Empire with little more than tenacity and perseverance. How you get from Rhodes juggling sausages in 1875 to pulling down his statue in 2015, parallels the modern political history of South Africa
