Gold Around the World

Gold is most certainly one of the last means by which entire countries, no matter what politics they believe in internally whether they are capitalists, socialists or communists, somehow gold is the one thing that is able to help them settle their accounts and debts amongst each other. Gold is the one medium of exchange that is accepted by all individuals and governments in the same way and not having or having it can actually lead nations to decide their fate and whether there will be war or not.

Nevertheless with the utility that gold has been proclaimed to have when it comes to human affairs, it is also a matter that is permeated with a great amount of obsession, and has lead people to be at their best or worse. We have been able to see throughout history how gold can set off the human character leading people to be jealous, envious, greedy, hateful, sad, as well as happy, loving and zealous.

As time went by in history gold began to be invested with a supernatural quality that turned into the representation of divine supremacy. Gold as you may recall, was once used to adorn a great number of temples and cathedrals, and it was also used as a ritual sacrifice. In ancient legends it was also said that gold was the child of the god Zeus. In the myth of Jason and Argonauts and the Golden Fleece, their search was for a sheepskin, which was used a lot in ancient times. Even as early as the days of the gold rush people used to use sheepskin to catch little pieces of alluvial gold and silver in streams that were rapid flowing.

We have all also heard about the ancient science of alchemy, which lasted somewhere up to around the seventeenth century and the idea was to look, to no avail, for a magic formula that would turn dross into gold. Obviously this displeased search caused a spark to occur in some and caused the conquistadors to go after it and initiated several gold rushes.