Gold has been a symbol of power, beauty, and immortality for many ancient cultures. Its rarity and aesthetic qualities made it an ideal material for the ruling classes to demonstrate their wealth and position. As gold became increasingly precious and omnipresent, the kingdoms of the old world began to wage multi-year wars that would leave towns and cities decimated. Prisoners of war, criminals, and slaves were sent to gold mines to search for precious metals.These ancient wars did not always have to do with currency, as they were often about religion and land.
However, gold was the main facilitator of these kingdoms to fight increasingly strongly against each other. Early civilizations equated gold with gods and rulers, and it was sought after in their name and dedicated to their glorification. It is almost intuitive that human beings place a high value on gold, equating it with power, beauty, and the cultural elite. This same thinking about gold is found in all ancient and modern civilizations around the world.Most likely, people discovered gold for the first time in streams and rivers around the world due to its striking beauty and brilliance.
The well-known history of gold goes back a long time, so much so that according to the National Mining Association, it was first used by the cultures of modern Eastern Europe in 4000 BC to make decorative objects. Gold was generally used for a couple of thousand years only to create things like jewelry and idols for worship. This was until around 1500 BC when the former empire of Egypt, which greatly benefited from its gold region Nubia, made gold the first official medium of exchange for international trade.Later in history, the ancient Greeks saw gold as a symbol of social status and a form of glory among immortal gods and demigods. Mortals could use gold as a sign of wealth and it was also a form of currency.
Contrary to what you might think, the Olympic tradition of awarding gold medals to winners did not begin until the modern Olympic Games and has little to do with Greek tradition.Silver tarnishes: it reacts with small amounts of sulfur in the air. This is why we especially value gold. Going back a bit to 1848, a man named John Marshall found gold flakes in a California stream, starting the California gold rush. Private households also traded in gold and often tried to acquire it as an important long-term interest, but gold was rarely buried by private houses with graves.According to the gold standard, the money supply is directly linked to the supply of gold.
This means that during World War I many nations decided to temporarily suspend the gold standard in order to print money to pay for their military participation in the war. Mints were legally obliged to buy and sell gold and silver at the rate of 15 parts silver and 1 part gold.Since the end of the gold standard, the price and production of gold have skyrocketed globally and so has demand. There are still supporters of the gold standard who spoke out during the global financial crisis citing advantages such as greater price stability than fiat money based solely on trust.The search for gold dates back thousands of years before money in the form of gold coins appeared around 700 BC. In fact, when gold appears in the New World it also appears to be associated with early development of pyrotechnology suggesting that metallurgy develops early with it.As gold became more entrenched in world currencies many countries began to back up their money with how much they could produce.
This series of blog posts on gold will seek to explain why it is such a precious metal giving a story analyzing its properties extraction process uses main producing countries and finally explaining its role as a marketed raw material.The gold standard gave people assurance that their money's value did not depend on their country's ability to pay its debts or international position but only on its capacity to produce gold. The process of colonization and globalization by developed countries made new discoveries commonplace leading to an influx of supplies which meant that the standard could flourish.Gold is associated with water (logical since most is found in streams) and is supposed to be a particularly dense combination of water and sunlight. Some have mentioned that another disadvantage is that countries with fewer reserves are at a significant disadvantage compared to those with more reserves.Gold is what we turn to when other forms don't work meaning it will always have value both difficult and good times.
