Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-05
HOW Dan MADE HIs EoRTUNa IN DIAMONDS
Stories Wonderful His
Magnificent Charities
From the

FROM the Lon
Mr.. Alfred Belt, the great South Afri-
can financier and one Of the richest men
in the world. died at his country house,
Tewin Walter, Herts, early In July
He was a naturallzed Bnglishman
With the late Cecil Rhodes, Mr. AL
fred Belt shared the chief responsibility
for the making Of modern South Africa.
Rhodes was an empire Mr..
Belt was the financial genius who made
possible the realization Of the dreams,
Curiously enough, both men were born
In the same year, 1858. Mr.. Belt was
born in Hamburg, and was the son Of
a well-to-do shipping merchant of that
city, Thirty-fve years ago the first
diamond was discovered i'm Kimberley,
and the shipping firm in Hamburg was
among the first to feel the boom which
followed.
His First Chance
Mr.. Belt, then a clerk i'm his fathers
office, was sent by his father on mis-
sion to the new diamond center with
Instructions to discover all he could
about the new Industry, and to find out
could be served In connection with 1t.
Landing i'm South Africa, the young
German journeyed north to Kimberley
400 miles in a cart, which was then
the only means of transportation-and
his arrival there laid the first stone In
the building of the great fortune which
he has left behind, variously estimated
at from e20,000,0OO to e25, 100000.
A few years ago when the shares of
South Africa mines stood at their high
est figure 1t was currently reported that
Mr. Belts interest in them must be
worth at least e1OO0OO,O00.
When he arrived in Kimberley the
diamond fever was at it's height. Min
ers from all parts of the world, desert
ing for a time their gold-seeking, had
thronged to the Eldorado of precious
gems. Every man was a law to him
self There was no order; there was
no government anarchy reigned.
Diamond Investment
Mr. Belt forgot his mission, forgot
everything to take part in the new in
dustry, to organize it and place 1t on
a commercial basis. He had not arr
rived in South Africa with only the
proverbial shilling in his pocket, and
the few thousand pounds he had
brought with him were promptly in
vested in the diamond fields.
He was only twenty-five years of age,
but soon became indispensable. He
founded the firm of Wernher, Belt &,
Co., and set to work to buy up all the
scattered claims he could obtain. Thir-
teen years later he had control of the
mines, and with the aid of Cecil Rhodes
and Mr.. Barney Barnato he carried
through the great consolidation of the
diamond mines which is represented
by the De Beers company of today,
with its capitalization of over 100000
pounds, and its enormous yearly divi-
dends, which have paid back the orig
inal investments many times over.
A curious story is told of the founda-
ton of the great amalgamation. The
three men met one night at the office
of Mr.. Belt in Kimberley, and the dawn
was breaking before they had finally
settled their plans Mr.. Rhodes desired
that the surplus profits should be util-
ized for the extension of British terri
tory northward. Mr.. Barney Barnato
saw the matter in a different tight.
Ultimately the persistency of the Briton
prevailed and Barnato exclaimed:
Some people have a fancy for this
thing and some for that. You have a
fancy for making an empire-well, 1
suppose we must give it YOU"
De Beers Monopoly
That was the birth OF the great d1a-
mond monopoly of South Africa. Until
the discovery of the Premier mine hard
ly diamond came out of the country
save by permission of De Beers, and it
has always been a maxim of the COM
pany that prices should be kept up
by making the supply less than the de-
mand.
Having thus organized the diamond
industry Mr.. Belt turned his attention
to the gold mines. Journeying to Jo-
hannesburg he founded, with the late
Mr.. Herman Eckstein, the house of
Eckstein, and today Messrs. Eckstein of
johannesburg and Messrs. Wernher,
Belt & Co., of London control or have
large interests in more than seventy
of the best known gold mines on the
Rand.
The paid up capital of these seventy
mines alone amounts to over e40O00000,
while even at present prices the shares
must be worth at least &100O00,000.
During the boom few years ago their
value stood well above 9250000O0O.
Within the last twenty years, indeed,