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Gold has a perception of wealth but history makes clear what it actually is. For example, the hordes of gold the Spanish plundered from the Americas directly co
by XorNot 3y ago
Gold has a perception of wealth but history makes clear what it actually is. For example, the hordes of gold the Spanish plundered from the Americas directly contributed to the bankruptcy of the monarchy.[1] Because they hadn't actually seized/mined "wealth" - they'd simply inflated their currency away without any commensurate expansion in productivity.
People who believe that it would be "easy" to trade gold for other goods have also clearly never tried - since the entire modern banking system came into existence on the basis of the sheer difficulty of directly trading gold for other goods. No one knows how to value gold, they don't know what it's worth other then a brick is probably a lot. If they could, then the fake jewellery scam wouldn't be as successful as it is[2].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution
[2] https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/just-say-no-walk-away-fake-gold-jewelry-scammers-target-people-near-i-5-again/AYEVLPGKPVARFLCKBQUEXGXVHA/ https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/just-say-no-walk-away-fake-...
- spiralx 3y agoEven better, the influx of gold from the New World was preceded by the period called the Great Bullion Famine where Europe-wide shortages of silver and gold led to long periods of deflation across the continent! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bullion_Famine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Bullion_Famine