Rough diamond prices cannot be discovered without informal market presence.
Evidence
As one dealer explained, a visit to the club enables him to “keep a finger on the pulse of the business.” Although a price list is available for certain classes of polished stones, the bourse’s trading floor is the only place to obtain a feel for the market price of rough diamonds: standardized price information is unavailable. Unlike other commodities exchanges, the DDC itself does not record either actual transactions prices or the volume of transactions. — Lisa Bernestein, Opting out of the Legal System, 41
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the reading purpose: the non-price-mediated coordination in the diamond bourse parallels the non-cooperation enforced through social sanctions in Sciascia’s Sicily — shared reliance on informal, face-to-face information. — connects to: Physical inspection constraints shape where diamond trades happen