3 ms·
Gold’s special place in the western canon is really just a cultural artifact. Not only are there a variety of metals that could take its place as an investment
by village-idiot 7y ago
Gold’s special place in the western canon is really just a cultural artifact. Not only are there a variety of metals that could take its place as an investment vehicle (silver, platinum, and rhodium among others), but historically a variety of metals were used for currencies and transactions. Bronze, brass, lead, and salt were all once used as currency, but have long since just become “base” metals.
On the opposite end of the spectrum you’ve got South American cultures that loved Gold for purely decorative purposes, but basically never considered it money. These cultures largely traded using barter or using a specific agricultural product as the unit of account, such as cacao beans.
- Theodores 7y agoThe Chinese were first to print money and the first to get into difficulties by printing too much. After this silver became the store of value and the currency. Hence the Opium Wars, the only way for UK/USA to get silver out of the Chinese economy. China had no interest in sub-standard Western goods and only wanted silver in exchange for their fine porcelain, silk and other goodies. Getting the whole nation on drugs and defending that trade with gunboats was a way of getting silver, silver being needed in the West for paying soldiers/mercenaries. Such proud history we have, enslaving India to get the opium, selling it in China and getting silver back to buy legit goods from China.