cartel

diamond cartel ideas. For ages it reigned as the world’s last true empire, she reflected, though now it shatters more every day. Still, despite the publicity “blood diamonds” have received, de Beers provides some control over the market. It may well be easier to find a "clean" diamond than it is to find a "clean" colored stone. Of course, the control’s slipped bigtime.
She thought of a story Fiona’s uncle told her that showed how much international clout the cartel once had and decided to include it. She began to write:

In the heyday of the De Beers diamond cartel, around four dozen top jewelry dealers would meet at headquarters in London - 17 Charterhouse St. They would receive boxes of uncut diamonds, each of which cost eight million dollars, and the dealers had to take whatever cookies they were passed. Young Harry Winston decided he could go around the cartel, refused his box, and set up a partnership in Angloa when the Portuguese had it. Next thing he knew, the Portuguese government advised his partners that the British government would regard conducting business with Harry Winston as ‘an unfriendly act.’ From then on, he politely accepted the packages the cartel sold him.