Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-05-07
ALL LAYOUT DIAMONDS
IMPORTATION oFTHEM A BARoMETef
 AS TO BUSINESS PROSPERITY

Much of the Supply of the United sta'sA
 Comes From Great Britain-The Ire
 mendous Business Done in Precious
 Stones of All Kinds.
 There is an old saying among d1a. mond dealers that by the volume or the importation of precious stones rom abroad the condition of business in thls country may be correctly gauged. When times are good the demand for diamonds is large; when times are oad' diamonds, being luxury, are in less demand and the importation Of them declines. Just now there is 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 pervasive good times. The Treasury bulletin recently issued in Washington corroborates dis tfnctly the claim of enlarged impoftas tions of diamonds. Here are the fig ures for the two years, the two fiscal years, ending July 1, of 1897 and l899, of diamond impOrtations into the United States; 1S97 $1,985,810; 189S $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- tions for the two years of other pfe- cious stones, rubies, sapphlres, emer- aids, pearls, opals, &c., are as follows in amount; 1897, $1,573,78S 1898, $3,- ll0,076
 The two chief foreign ports from which diamonds are sent to this coun- try are Amsterdam and Antwerp. From Great Britain a 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 ieweIry to the United States fell off one-half in amount. The exportations of French jewelry fell off two-thirds and from Holland four-ifths, 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 NToIx- WorIz 4I,o i,,oDor+o+fO-e sr+1 04Laa American ports being insignificant in amount, notwithstanding the fact that a considerable share of the eountry's 3 ieWelry business is done in New Eng- land, particularly in the city of PTovi- dence. The explanation of the matter is that New York is the market of SUD- ply for the whole country in jewelry 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 variances in the amount of business done in diamonds and precious stones Ca trade peculiarly sus- eeptible to trade conditions) is shown in the case of Belgium. In 1894 it's total exportations to the United States were to the value of $74,000 in dfa- monds, jewelry, and precious stones. The year before they were $210,000, OF three times as much. The year after they were $5OO,OO0, or seven times greater.
 he same assertion which is made concerning 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,