Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-12-02
ALL ABOUT DIAMONDS
IMPORTATION oFTHeM ABARoMETEE
 AS TO BUSINESS PROSPERITY.

Much of the Supply of the United States
 Comes From Great Britain-The Ire
 mendous Business Done in Precious
 Stones of All Kinds.
 There is an old saying among dia- mond dealers that by the volume of the importation of precious stones from abroad the condition of business in this country may be correctly gauged. When times are good the demand for diamonds is large; when times are bad, diamonds, being luxury, are in less demand and the importation of them declines. Just now there is a largely increased demand for diamonds, and if there be merit in the claim made in the saying quoted this should be an- other indication of perYasiye good times. The Treasury bulletin recently issued in Washington corroborates dis tinctly the claim of enlarged importa- tions of diamonds. Here are the fig ures for the two years, the two fiscal years, ending July 1, of 1897 and 1898, of diamond importations into the United States; 1897, $1,985,S1o; 1898, $6,955, ,789. The increase of importa- tions of diamonds is however, not the only one in the line of decorative jeWelry," so to speak. The importa- uons for the two years of other pre- cious stones, rubies, sapphires, emer- aids, pearls, opals, &c., are as follows in amount: 1897, $1,573. .78S; 1898, $S,- 440,076
 The two chief foreign ports from which diamonds are sent to this coun- try are Amsterdam and Antwerp. From Great Britain considerable amount of jewelry is exported to the United States, but much of it comes from England in transit, particularly from Switzerland, a country having few direct trade relations with the United States. In the fiscal year of 1894, following the depression caused by the financial disturbances of that year, the exports of iewelry to the United States fell off one-half in amount. The exportations of French jewelry fell off two-thirds and from Holland four-ffths, but the losses sus- tained in the amount of the exports have been more than covered this year, as the Treasury figures show The American port which practically gets all the jeWelry diamonds, and precious stones sent into the United States is New York, the importations into other American ports being insignificant in amount, notwithstanding the fact that a considerable share of the eountry's jeWelry business is done in New Eng land, particularly in the city of Provi denee. The explanation of the matter is that New York is the market of SUD- ply for the whole country in iewelry and precious stones, though New York has only part of the trade in diamond and precious stone setting.
 The largest country of export of un- cut diamonds to the United States is Holland, and England follows through the development of the diamond inter- ests in Africa. In the importations of jewelry and precious stones other than diamonds, France leads and Holland follows. The variauce5 in the amount of business done in diamonds and precious stones Ga trade peculiarly sus- ceptible to trade conditions) is shown ill the case of Belgium. In 1894 it's total expectations to the United States were to the value of $74,000 in dia- monds, jewelry, and precious stones. The year before they were $210,O0O, or three times as much. The year after they were S50O,o00, or seven times greater.
 he same assertion which is made diamonds and precious stones as a trade barometer has been made assiduously for champagne, the importations of which are always larg- est when business is good and small est when times are dull.