THE HISTORY
FOR MORE THAN FOUR CENTURIES, THE DIAMOND INDUSTRY HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED IN AMSTERDAM.
City of Diamonds
The city has called itself the ‘City of Diamonds’ since its heyday in the mid-18th century. The influx of diamond workers over the centuries was the result of war and oppression elsewhere. From 1576 onward, many Protestants and Portuguese Jews fled the Spanish (Catholic) oppression in the southern part of the Spanish Empire…
1500
The Portuguese open the shipping route to India around the southern tip of Africa. They become the greatest importers of rough diamonds. Diamond processing and trading takes place chiefly in Lisbon.
1576
The Spanish Fury – a mutiny of Spanish troops who plundered Antwerp – and the fall of Antwerp in 1585 caused an enormous exodus of the population. Some settled in the Northern provinces of the Netherlands, and especially in Amsterdam. Among them were diamond workers.
1580
Portugal is conquered by Spain. There commences a migration of Jews to the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands, where freedom of establishment and worship are guaranteed. They are not permitted to join a guild, however, and are only admitted to the ‘free’ professions. One of these is the diamond industry. Many settle in Amsterdam.
1586
On 15th November 1586, Willem Vermaert, diamond worker by profession, has himself entered as such in the Amsterdam marriage registers. Although the diamond trade had already existed for some time, this registration is the first document to show that Amsterdam has been known as the City of Diamonds for at least four centuries.
