Show gold G old 01 ca in history ibi 81 r r r I 1 J z ZI Z i V Z M A jyril Z gold diggers of south africa in playtime prepared by national geographic society was gt on D C service OLD standards gold ship shipments in ants GOLD G gold rushes gold values uses of gold and myriad other references to gold have kept the yellow metal before the public eye in recent months gold cold coins brought from the wreck by robinson crusoe were worthless to him on his island nobody was in sight from whom he might buy but when crusoe was rescued and could mingle again with other men then his gold would buy anything he wanted what a simple lesson in the power of gold I 1 lust for gold and the power it wields recast old world geography in the plundering raids of alexander the great it brought changes to eu bu ropes map in the punie punic wars and in the campaigns of marius pompey paulus aemilius Ae millus and julius caesar leaping the atlantic in the wake ot columbus it was again the gold fever which led the conquering hordes on those long explorations which not only wrecked and robbed the aztec and inca empires and slew or enslaved whole tribes of Ind indians lans but laid the fir ir lines of what is now the map of the western hemisphere yet a third geographic chapter in mans worldwide world wide gold quest dawned when the trail wove back and forth across the pacific from california to australia back to alaska then away oft off to south africa always on the cultural map the golds gold cekor seeker left his mark consider california the for ty biners rush to its rich placers started that western migration which was to build railways and new cities found industries and cover the west with farms sawmills and schoolhouses gold strikes in the same way swelled the human tide to australia and hastened its settlement and growth growt li when gold mines of fabulous wealth opened in south africa they put the dark continent in the worlds eye and led indirectly to the goer boer war cripple creek the ROon klondike dilie northern on tarla now the greatest gold area in the western world all have had their profound effects on human progress gold Is not static when gold was used merely as personal adornment tin in plate or in the decorative arts it swayed the destiny destin only of those who possessed it as in peru and Al mexico exico or when rome paid charlot chariot loads of it to the barbarians to it save herself from being sacked but when gold came into wide use as money to measure wages prices and the cost of living in all nations then it began to influence the whole world tariffs the gold standard foreign exchange and debts arbitrage gold brings them all into the picture of international ter relations you think of all this when you walk through the united states mint in philadelphia and see the shiny new gold coins colne come tumbling out or when you explore the alie vast silent vaults of the federal reserve bank in lower new york city sunk sun far below the hudson bludson river rl er level with their stacks of gold bars and bags of coin worth billions high above you in the busy street armored trucks and armed guards come and go with still more gold the gold that is forever crossing and re crossing the oceans the gold goh of paris and london of tokyo and buenos ayres for gold is never static incessantly it changes form and place and yet endures look at your own gold watch and think some of its gold particles might conceivably have come even from tho the gold of solomons temple from an old treasure ship plundered by bucca buccaneers of the spanish main or again from new gold mined only last year in arizona look at the motley heaps of secondhand gold jewelry in any pawnshop window visit one of the great factories in new I 1 ew england or around man hattan where costume and other jewelry y ls Is turned out by the carload and ai you 0 u see again why industry uses so much of all gold produced or consider the fortunes in gold leaf laid on the crosses and domes of churches such as h at pauls cathedral in lon fon don tho mosques of meshed and an than as re ported or of this about 80 per cent was produced since cut but today the worlds nations hold america can now be definitely located the director of the united states mint since 1492 the world has mined more tal and sign painting trades halt half used in industry only about half of the worlds gold production since the discovery ot of najaf such structures as the woolworth and american radiator buildings in new york or the fortunes in gold worked up every year in the denas monetary gold stock only about what you ask has become of tho the rest of it where are the missing ten billions or more it went much of it just as in olden times into ornaments in 1931 for instance of roughly of gold mined in the united states alone about was consumed in industry to understand golds place in the tha world today and how bow it affects our well being one must first swiftly trace its use through other times Eu ropes gold when columbus alist sailed westward amounted to less than some present day family fortunes part of this europe had mined part she had plundered from other lands cadmus a phoenician opened a gold mine in phrase about 1591 1501 B C and carried thither the alphabet and other germs of civilization jason on his piratical gold quest to argos in 1203 B C gave the name argonauts to gold seekers croesus gained wealth from ancient placer mines of smyrna so did midas of the legendary golden touch who turned his own daughter into gold darius of persia looted asia minor greece and egypt and levied gold and silver tribute part of this alexander retrieved when he in turn plundered babylon aud other lands of enormous sums holes dug by harun al rashid when J he be worked the gold veins of what now is hegaz were recently seen diodoros Dlo Dio dorus tells in dramatic detail how bow naked slaves with candles tied on top of their heads worked the hot tunnels of egyptian gold mines in the cruel days of the pharaohs Phara some of early europe Europ egr gold came from Sl siberia beria gmelin the german traveler says the tunnels were so small that men had to crawl on their bellies to get at the quartz from which they picked gold filaments with tools pointed with boars baars fangs india hoards gold india in time became the worlds greatest gold hoarder the treasure sink of the world she has been called just how much gold Is still hidden in the secret vaults of her princes nobody knows from 1873 to 1030 1930 however the records show that india imported about in gold even after america was discovered europe though her own gold supply was increased continued to obtain less lesa by mining than by conquest and plunder cortez and pizarro in the new world as scipio and alexander had done in the old few books record the fact yet javan japan in the seventeenth century supplied europe with an important stock of gold the portuguese and dutch managed this beginning generations before the american commodore perry opened japans ports to world trade fernao aleides pinto a pirate from the portuguese colony at china was vas driven upon the japanese nast coast c during a storm in 1515 1545 when lie he returned to with tales of 0 much gold in japan other portuguese fitted out ships and began trading though japan then coined no gold as money her people amassed it as wealth and traded it freely for weapons drugs and dress stuffs brought by the portuguese and later the dutch when the stock begin began to wane the portuguese hatched a plot to overthrow the tha shogun and to work the mines with enslaved natives this project led finally to their expulsion the portuguese however had actually contrived contrive to have tho the mines worked and thus secured treasure trea sura which shipped to europe |