Changes

The simple, common appeal of gold led to its prehistoric presence in many societies. However, as societies developed formal governments and international trade developed, gold took on a the role of being an important medium for exchange and trade. This influence on the economy helped it to make trade items stable in their prices, but it also motivated states to control gold's access. The first example of how the control of gold gave great power occurred in ancient Egypt in the 2nd millennium BCE. This occurred also in the period of the Roman Empire, where that state played an important role in international trade through its access and control of gold. The Spanish later demonstrated how gold motivated their exploration and imperial expansion. The rise of the British Empire influenced other countries ' adoption of gold as being an important standard for currency value.  Gold, more recently, has been avoided as the standard for currency value. In part, this is because of the history of gold, where its limited distribution has caused imbalances in the world economy, where countries that controlled it were able to gain unprecedented power. For the United States, moving away from the gold standard occurred as a way to avoid gold fluctuations, limitations in currency supply, and control of the economy by foreign powers. However, other countries, such as China, see that in the long-term gold may have great value, particularly if there are future major disruptions to international trade and, once again, a standard such as gold is needed to provide value to currencies or international trade. In effect, the long-term viability of global economies without using gold as a standard could be tested in the years to come.<ref>For more on how the move away from the gold standard influences economies, see: Cooper, George. 2010. <i>The Origin of Financial Crises: Central Banks, Credit Bubbles and the Efficient Market Fallacy.</i> Petersfield: Harriman House.</ref>