Barney barnato biography portraits
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Barney Barnato
Barney was a proponent of consolidating claims to alleviate production problems and to maintain the price of diamonds by stockpiling diamonds. Cecil Rhodes, working the De Beers mine, had the same idea and became a major competitor in the race to consolidate.
Initially, there were more than 3,600 claims being mined at Kimberley. In time this number dropped to under one hundred, and Barnato Brothers were among those (they used this name from the time Barney arrived in Kimberley, completely dropping the Isaacs name). As the Barnato Brothers made money, they ploughed it back into buying up claims. Barney aimed at complete consolidation of the Kimberley mine, but there were others players with similar goals.
A ‘battle royal’ ensued between Barney and Cecil Rhodes. The French Rothschild Bank was involved with Rhodes, as were a number of other wealthy men. All were experienced. All wanted control of the diamond mining interests of either Kimberley or De Beers. De
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Barney Barnato
Barney Barnato was born in 21 February 1851, Whitechapel slum of London. His original name was Barnett Issacs but changed it to Barney Barnatto when he was acting as a comedian. He followed his brother Harry to Cape Town in 1873 to seek fortune in the diamond rush that followed the 1866 discovery of diamond in Kimberly. He came to South Africa penniless, but within 10 years he was a millionaire and the Barnato Diamond Mining Company that he helped set up was a competitive rival of Cecil John Rhodes’ De Beers company.
Rhodes and Barnato set out to dominate the diamond industry by ansträngande to buy up all the shares that came onto the market. Their struggle for control of the only other independent company, 'The French Company' (Compagnie Francais des Mines de Diamant du Cap), was acute, until Barnato merged all his diamond interests in the Kimberley huvud Diamond Mining Company and became the owner of the French company. But his victory soured when he learned that R
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The story behind "Barney" Barnato
Barney Barnato was born on the 4th July 1852 in the Whitechapel slum of London. His original name was Barnett Issacs but changed it to Barney Barnatto when he was acting as a comedian. Barney was the son of a small shopkeeper off Petticoat Lane, one of the best-known streets in London's East End, Barnato was in every respect the complete antithesis of Rhodes. Barnato (image right) was an extrovert, imbued with Jewish-Cockney wit and humor. After leaving school at fourteen, he obtained a number of odd jobs including being a 'bouncer' at a public house and appearing on stage at a music hall. Several of his relatives left for South Africa after hearing of the discovery of diamonds there, so Barney eventually followed them. His only capital on arrival at the diamond fields consisted of a box of cigars - of doubtful quality - which he hoped to sell to the diggers. He became an itinerant buyer of diamonds, his genial personality proving a useful as