Diamond & Jewelry News, Advice and Prices for Consumers
Diamond & Jewelry News, Advice and Prices for Consumers
September 3, 2010
My son saw a documentary about diamonds and says they said the diamond trade center was in Bruges. I was sure it was Antwerp, but he couldn't have thought this up. Where would he even have gotten the name Bruges? Was the documentary accurate? Isn't Antwer the diamond trade center?
September 9, 2010
September 8, 2010
Oh I don't know about the history, but today the diamond center of the world is definitely Antwerp.80% of all of the rough diamonds in the world are sold in Antwerp and half of all of the cut diamonds are. Bruges might have boon the diamond center in the past, but today it is definitely Antwerp.
September 6, 2010
Well, towards the end of the sixteenth century the Spanish took over Antwerp and the Jews who were the main diamond cutters in Antwerp actually fled to the Netherlands. So it wasn't untill they were able to return that |Antwerp became the center of diamond trade again. Maybe that's why Amsterdam was the center of the diamond trade during that time.
September 6, 2010
You are both correct. Antwerp has been a strong player in the diamond trade arena for five hundred years, but during the 17th and 18th centuries, Bruges and Amsterdam briefly took its place. Perhaps that was the part of the documentary your son happened to watch. The fist formal diamond bourses in Antwerp opened in 1863. By the end of the 19th century Antwerp was again the biggest diamond trade center worldwide.
