Blood, Sweat and Earth: The Struggle for Control over the World’s Diamonds Throughout History

Blood, Sweat and Earth is a hard-hitting historical expose of the diamond industry, focusing on the exploitation of workers and the environment, and the monopolisation of uncut diamonds, and how little this has changed over time. It describes the use of forced labour and political oppression by Indian sultans, the Portuguese in Brazil, and South African industrialists, as well as the hoarding of diamonds to maintain high prices, from the English East India Company to De Beers.

While recent discoveries of diamond deposits in Siberia, Canada and Australia have brought an end to monopolisation, the book shows that advances in the production of synthetic diamonds have not yet been able to eradicate the exploitation caused by the world’s unquenchable thirst for sparkle.