Introduction: Towards a Global History of Gold

Abstract

‘Commodities are back in the news’ (Hazareesingh and Curry-Machado 2009, p. 1). This is the opening editorial statement in the 2009 Journal of Global History, which insists on the ‘renewed importance of commodities in the global political landscape of the early twenty-first century’.¹ While the authors are mainly referring here to the relentless struggle being waged between the great powers of the United States, China and Russia, regarding access to and control of oil, gas and other primary resources that are highly strategic for modern industrial societies at the start of the 21st century — and to the profound historic echoes of this rush for raw materials — this observation is also applicable as far as gold is concerned. Although gold cannot be considered ‘a vital economic good’, it has played, and still does play, a pivotal role in the world economy, mainly due to its dual function: now monetary standard, now traded commodity. Gold is unlike other commodities. While subject to strong worldwide demand — from central banks, industry, the jewellery and art trades on the one hand, and its stockpiling in bars, ingots or coins for private hoarding, speculation and investment on the other — this precious metal has played a unique, complex and changing role in international monetary systems since the gradual setting up of the classical gold standard at the end of the 19th century, and throughout the 20th.