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[[File:Queen Hatshepsut's expedition to Punt, plaster cast of her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri, Western Thebes, Egypt - Royal Ontario Museum - DSC09766.JPG|thumbnail|300px|left|Figure 1. Relief showing Queen Haptshepsut's expedition to Punt.]]
Few naturally occurring substances have had nearly universal value among ancient and modern societies as gold. We often think of gold as something decorative or worn. However, in the ancient and modern worlds, gold was also the standard in which economies and value of other objects were measured by. In effect, gold helped structure and continues to help structure economies around the world today.It was not until the 20th Century that most countries abandoned the gold standard.
===How Gold Became Important for Economies===
In early Chinese dynasties, gold probably did not play as important a role in society as jade did for luxury objects and wealth display. However, it was still used to decorate objects and often was intermixed with other precious materials. Nevertheless, as gold became a key medium of exchange or value of exchange, gold in China also gained increasing value in the 1st millennium BCE, where it was locally valued and important for trade.<ref>For more on how gold developed in China as an important substance, see: Bunker, Emma C. 1993. “Gold in the Ancient Chinese World: A Cultural Puzzle.” <i>Artibus Asiae</i> 53 (1/2): 27. doi:10.2307/3250506.</ref>
===Later Developments===
In effect, what emerged, as key international trade routes such as the Silk Road developed, was that gold became one of the key commodities that supported the value of trade items such as silk, metals, spices, and other substances traded. The Roman's, with their important trade role, spread the use of silver and gold coins to different areas of their empire in Europe (Figure 2). After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the minting of coins had halted in many regions, particularly northern Europe. However, the Byzantine Empire continued to mint gold coins and the <i>bezant</i> became a standard used by that Empire. The Byzantine Empire dominated Mediterranean trade and southern European trade in the early Medieval period, leading to the gold standard becoming paramount in those regions. Gold continued to be used along the Silk Road and related trade routes.<ref>For more on how gold continued to shape world trade in the early Medieval period, see: Bentley, Jerry H., and Herbert F. Ziegler. 2011. <i>Traditions & Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past.</i> 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, pg. 327. </ref>
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In Europe, developing kingdoms, such as those developed by the Anglo-Saxons and Franks, began to use silver rather than gold. Silver, thus, became the main standard over gold in Europe. In the 16th century, Spain was motivated in its conquests of the New World in part by gold as it expanded its empire there and began to ship now large quantities of gold. In Europe, gold, once again, began to have greater importance in its role in the economy. It was only under the reign of Queen Anne in the early 18th century, however, and particularly after the Napoleonic Wars, that gold began to play a central role in increased international trade. The British specie began to be the standard that was used in the 18th and 19th centuries, where laws in the early 19th century helped to solidify its role. As Britain's trade empire increased, along with its trade influence, the gold standard, once again, began to spread across the globe, similar to how it did during the Classical period.<ref>For more on the spice, see: Andrei, Liviu C. 2011. <i>Money and Market in the Economy of All Times: Another World History of Money and Pre-Money Based Economies.</i> London and New York.</ref>