Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

After the museum trip, Liang En and the others made no other travel plans and went directly back to the hotel. According to the previous plan, they will go to Mr. Varma's diamond processing factory to see if they have any inspiration.

Diamonds have a long history as beautiful objects of desire. In the first century AD, the Roman naturalist Pliny said: "Diamonds are the most valuable, not only gems, but unique things in the world."

Although when people mention diamonds now, they will think of diamond-rich African countries such as South Africa and Sierra Leone. If they are interested in this industry, they may also mention newer origins such as Canada, Russia or Brazil.

But the oldest diamonds come from India. From 800 BC to the mid-18th century, India was the only producer of diamonds and also produced famous large diamonds like the Mountain of Light.

Ancient Indians divided the color of diamonds into four grades and named them according to India's unique caste system: colorless diamonds are called "Brahmin"; light red diamonds are called "Kshatriya"; light green diamonds are called "Kshatriya" Vaishya"; the gray diamond is called "Sudra".

Diamonds have been described and recorded in Indian literature in the fourth century BC. Archaeological research has found that Indians had used diamonds as tools to carve beads of other gemstones in the fourth century BC.

Like the ancient Silk Road, India also has a trade route connecting India and the Western world, which is called the Diamond Road in historians' research.

The Diamond Road actually consists of two routes. One is the land route, which runs from India through present-day Iran and Turkey to Rome; the other is the water route, which crosses the Indian Ocean and passes through Mecca from Alexandria, Egypt, on the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and then crosses the Mediterranean Sea to reach Rome.

The diamonds that appeared in the Roman Empire in the first to third centuries AD were transported from India through these two "diamond roads". However, with the demise of the Roman Empire, the final destination of this road became Persia.

However, the biggest problem with Indian diamond mines is that the output is too small. Even at the peak of the 17th century, the annual output was about 50,000 to 100,000 carats, only a small part of which reached gem quality.

After that, diamond production fell rapidly. Between 1725 and 1730, only 2,000-5,000 carats of diamonds were shipped from India to Europe each year, which severely hit the European diamond industry.

However, diamonds were discovered in Brazil in 1730 and reached their peak in the 1850s, with annual output exceeding 300,000 carats until it dropped to 5,000 carats in 1880.

But it was also at this time that Africa, the most important diamond producing area in modern society, was discovered. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the annual output of diamond mines near Kimberley City alone was as high as 20 to 30 million carats.

Since then, diamonds have no longer become a luxury product exclusive to princes and nobles, but have entered thousands of households. However, in this era, India is still an important part of the diamond industry.

Nowadays, many people who buy and wear diamonds do not think about this question: African miners dig rough diamonds, and wealthy people around the world buy diamonds. Who does the processing? The answer is India!

Today, the port cities of Surat and Mumbai in western India have become global diamond processing centers. In the most extreme years, they even accounted for 92% of the global diamond processing share.

Although China has gradually developed this business in recent years, its share has not been able to expand much due to labor costs. India still firmly occupies the top spot in the world's diamond processing share.

There are now four major diamond processing centers in the world, the small diamond processing center - Surat and Mumbai, India; the large diamond processing center - New York, the United States; the exquisite diamond processing city - Antwerp, Belgium; and the exquisite small diamond processing center - —Tel Aviv, Israel.

Because the overall cutting effect of diamonds processed in India is different from that of other places, the diamonds processed in India are mainly small diamonds, and the consumers they face are ordinary consumers.

But this does not mean that Indians do not have good goods. Don’t forget the terrible gap between rich and poor in India. It is definitely possible for these rich people to hide some top-quality diamonds.

However, India is really bad in terms of jewelry design and high-end processing. There are few masters in this field in India. This is basically why Mr. Varma specially invited Liang En.

At least Liang En's work can really reach the master level, and this is what he lacks most now. It would be an absolute fool not to seize this opportunity.

Liang En received a request from Steward Robuchon and expressed the hope that he could help see if Varma had any good diamonds. If so, he could inform them to discuss the next diamond acquisition.

For this kind of luxury goods company, large diamonds are definitely a rare resource. Now that I can get them through cooperation, if the price is right, I will definitely try to get them.

Surat is more than 200 kilometers north of Mumbai. Since they set off after noon, it was already around 4 pm when they arrived there.

The first thing you do after arriving on the field is to eat, because Indians are good at procrastinating all tasks for a long time, so if you don't eat enough before working, you will definitely feel hungry after a while.

After eating, they drove to a settlement of low-income Surat citizens on the outskirts of the city. After driving at high speed for a few minutes along a road hundreds of meters long, they came to a large iron gate. the front.

Tall walls, barbed wire and watchtowers on the walls separated the factory from the surrounding communities. After passing through the gate, a slightly crude-looking factory appeared in front of them.

The reason why I say shabby is that the factory houses were obviously not built in the same era. Some of the older houses have damaged paint on the walls and broken glass, which makes them look a little bad.

But those new five-story factory buildings look very nice and should have been built in the past two years. It can also be seen from this that this processing plant has actually been developing. It is no wonder that the other party is starting to think about expanding its operations.

Judging from the scale, this should be a very large factory, because there are more than 5,000 people in the entire factory, which is even considered one of the best in the entire region.

This is also a characteristic of Indian processing, which is to rely on cheap labor costs to play the human sea tactic. To give the simplest example, Indian labor costs are only about 60% of those in China.

This is an important reason why China, as the world's largest manufacturing country, cannot defeat the Indians in this regard, because the labor costs of the Indians are too low.

But the current situation also means that India can only have an advantage in the low-end diamond processing industry and cannot upgrade the industry. After all, it is basically impossible for this group of illiterate or semi-illiterate workers to meet the quality requirements of the labor force required for industrial upgrading.

After entering the factory building, everyone took the elevator to the office on the fifth floor. As one of the few air-conditioned rooms, everyone felt cool after entering.

After closing the door to the office, Mr. Varma opened a safe and took out several trays of different sizes, all covered with sparkling diamonds, which looked extremely bright under the light.