First of all, gold is an asset. The rarity of gold makes it very precious, while the stability of gold makes it easy to preserve. Therefore, gold has not only become the material wealth of human beings, but also become an important means for human beings to store wealth, so gold has been particularly favored by human beings.
Green, a gold historian, pointed out: "The civilizations of ancient Egypt and Rome were all cultivated by gold." Grabbing more gold was the motive force for the rulers of ancient Egypt and Rome to give up military activities.
From 2000 BC to 1849 BC, the rulers of ancient Egypt launched four predatory wars against Nubia (a small country rich in gold resources in the upper Nile) and occupied all the gold mines in Nubia. From 1525 BC to 1465 BC, the French king of the 18th dynasty in Egypt launched two wars successively, plundering a great deal of gold and silver from Palestine and Syria. A large amount of gold and silver flowed into Egypt, which greatly increased Egypt's wealth, enabled them to build large-scale water conservancy projects, develop agriculture, build luxurious palaces and cemeteries, and left a huge site of the Amun Temple and pyramids for mankind. The gold coffin in Tutankhamun's mausoleum alone weighs 1 10 kg.
In 47 BC, ancient Egypt was occupied by the Roman Empire. When Julius Caesar triumphed in Rome, he displayed 2822 gold crowns plundered from Egypt, each weighing 8 kilograms, accounting for 22.58 tons. It also shows 18 15 tons of silver. The gold and silver transported to the parade weighed 65,000 tarants, about 1.950 tons. The accumulation of gold and silver greatly enhanced the national strength of the Roman Empire and enabled them to build many magnificent buildings. Although most of these buildings are now in ruins, they still have a far-reaching impact on mankind in literature, history, law and philosophy.
Gold is also the material basis of modern industrial civilization.
/kloc-The opening of the new sea route and the discovery of the new continent in the 6th century had a great impact on European economic life. Gold and silver from America and Africa flowed into Europe, which increased the primitive accumulation of European capitalism. Portugal plundered 276 tons of gold from Africa in the16th century; Spain plundered more gold and silver from America. At the end of 16, Spain controlled 83% of the world's gold mining. The influx of gold and silver caused the rise of European prices, and the first price revolution appeared, which greatly promoted the disintegration of European feudalism and the establishment of capitalist relations of production. /kloc-in the 0 th and 7 th centuries, Portugal formed an alliance with Britain in order to fight against Spain and opened its market to British industrial products. At this time, the development of Brazilian gold under the control of Portugal reached a climax, and it was entirely possible for Brazilian gold to be converted into capital, which enabled Portugal to complete the industrial revolution. However, due to the feudal autocracy of the rulers, Portugal became a golden funnel, and most of the gold flowed to Britain. Only 600 tons of gold flowed into the British treasury, and with the inflow from other countries, Britain quickly accumulated huge monetary capital, and took the lead in implementing the gold standard in 17 17, which provided a reliable economic guarantee for the British financial system. Therefore, the second price revolution at this time not only did not affect the British financial industry, but also created conditions for the export of British goods, and the export volume of British products accounted for 1/4 of the world total. The industrial revolution finally happened in Britain.
Although the role of contemporary gold has changed, countries still reserve about 365,438+/kloc-0,000 tons of gold wealth for emergencies. More than 20,000 tons of gold is privately owned investment wealth. Therefore, some people think that of the 6.5438+0.4 million tons of gold produced by human beings for thousands of years, about 40% are financial assets and about 60% are general commodities, whose main function is for consumption.
Secondly, gold is a currency. Gold has a very long history as a currency. The ancient Roman Alexander gold coins unearthed have a history of more than 2,300 years, and the Persian gold coins have a history of more than 2,500 years. The earliest existing gold coin in China is the "love" cast by Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, which has a history of more than 2,300 years. However, these gold coins are only used in a certain range and area. Gold became a recognized international currency in the world during the "gold standard" period of19th century. "gold standard" means that gold can be used as a means of payment for domestic circulation settlement; Can be used as an international hard currency for foreign trade settlement. Although the gold standard was first implemented in Britain as early as 17 17, it was not officially confirmed in the system until 18 16. Later, Germany, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, the United States, France, Russia, Japan and other countries announced the implementation of the gold standard. The gold standard system is the peak of the performance of gold currency attributes. Countries around the world have implemented the gold standard for more than 200 years, ranging from several decades, while China has never implemented the gold standard. Later, due to the outbreak of the world war, many countries carried out gold control, and the gold standard was difficult to maintain. On the eve of the end of World War II, under the leadership of the United States, the Bretton Woods Conference was held, and relevant resolutions were adopted to establish an international monetary system centered on the US dollar. But the dollar is linked to gold, and the United States promises to undertake the international obligation of exchanging 35 dollars for an ounce of gold. However, in the 1960s, there were several gold buying waves. In order to safeguard its own interests, the United States first gave up the fixed official price of gold, and then announced that it would no longer undertake the obligation to exchange gold. As a result, the Bretton Woods monetary system collapsed and the non-monetization reform of gold began. This reform began in the early 1970s, and the revised agreement of the International Monetary Fund was approved in 1978. It can be said that the process of non-monetization of gold at the institutional level has been completed.
Marx said: "Money is not gold and silver, gold and silver are money." Just as gold played the role of functions of money before the gold standard, the non-monetization of gold at the institutional level does not mean that gold completely lost its functions of money:
-gold is no longer used for foreign trade settlement, but when the balance of payments finally balances, gold is still a settlement method acceptable to both parties.
-The non-monetization of gold does not specify the destination of huge gold reserves in various countries. Even the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which holds high the banner of non-monetization of gold, only designated to dispose of16 of the gold reserve, and kept most of it, apparently leaving a tail of monetary gold for itself.
-The euro monetary system, which was born in the late 1990s, made it clear that gold accounts for 15% of the system's currency reserves. This is the return of gold monetization.
-Gold is still the fifth largest international settlement currency after the US dollar, euro, pound and yen. The great economist Keynes revealed the secret of monetary gold. He pointed out: "Gold plays an important role in our system. As the last guard and reserve in an emergency, nothing else can replace it. " Now gold can be regarded as a quasi-currency.
Third, gold is also a commodity. Making gold ornaments (including jewelry, Buddha decoration, architectural decoration, etc.). ) and gold utensils are the most basic use of gold. If there is any change, it is that gold ornaments are increasingly moving from palaces and temples to the people, from the privilege of dignitaries to mass consumption. Now more than 80% of the global gold supply is absorbed by the jewelry industry every year.
Due to the high price of gold and the relative scarcity of resources, the industrial use of gold is limited, and the proportion of industrial gold in the total world demand is less than 10%. However, some experts believe that jewelry gold will tend to be stable in the future, and the growth of industrial gold will be an important force driving the change of supply and demand structure of gold, so the commercial use of gold needs to be explored in many aspects.
At present, the main uses of gold commodities are jewelry industry, electronics industry, dentists, gold medals and other industrial gold. It should be admitted that the commercial use of gold is still very narrow at present, which is also the result of the strict control of gold as a currency metal by the state for a long time. In the future, with the advancement of the reform of the international financial system; The regression trend of financial gold's commodity attributes is strengthening, and the expansion of gold commodity demand will be more meaningful to the development of gold industry.