Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-03-15
ALL ABOUT DIAMONDS
REFORMATION oFTHeM AeARomETeF AS TO BUSINESS PROSPERITY

Much of the Supply of the United States
 Comas From Great Britain-The Ire
 mendous Business Done in Precious
 Stones ef All Kinds.
 There is an old saying among dia- mond dealers that Ly 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 fs large; when times are bad, diamonds. being a 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 ef pervasive 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 Che two years, the two fiscal years, ending July l, of 1897 and 1893, of diamond importations into the United States; 1897, s19858l0; 1898. SG,965. .f89. The increase of imRorta- lions Of diamonds is however not the only one in the line of decorative jewelry." so to speak The importa- lions fer the two years of other pre- efoas stones, rubies. sapphires, emer- aids. pearls, zopaIs. 2e,. are as follows in amount 1897, st.578i7s8; 1898. s. ll0.07G.
 The tuo chief foreign ports from which diamonds are sent to this coun- afy are Amsterdam and Antwerp. From Great Britain a considerable amount of jewelry is exported to the United States. but much of it comes rom England in transit, particularly rom Switzerland, a country having few direct trade relations with the United States, In the fiscal year ofI 1894. following the depression caused by the financial disturbances of that year, the exports Of jewelry to the United States fell off one-half in amount. The exportations of French iewelry 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 iewelry, diamonds, and precious stones sent into the United States is New York. the imB0rtations into other American ports being insignificant in amount notwithstanding the fact that 5 considerable share of the eountry's iewciry business is done in New Eng land, particularly in the city of Proyi- l 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 i 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 Yarianees in the amount of business done in diamonds and precious stones Ia trade peculiarly sus- ceptibIe to trade eonditions) is shown in the case of Belgium. In 1894 it's total exportations to the United States were to the value of s74,000 in dia- monds, jewelry, and precious stones. The year before they were $210,00o, or three times as much. The year after ihey were s5oOOoO. 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 lmportations of which are always larg- est when business is good and small est when times are dull