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How Economic Cycles Help Investors
 
 
One of the oldest civilisations known to man, the Sumerians of Mesopotamia, who lived in what is modern-day Iran and Iraq, first used gold as sacred, ornamental, and decorative instruments in the fifth millennium B.C. Around the same period, the early Egyptians —the richest gold-producing civilisation of the ancient world — began the art of gold refining. Like the Sumerians, the Egyptians used gold primarily for personal adornment, rather than for monetary purposes, although the kings of the fourth to sixth dynasties (c. 2700 - 2270 B.C.) did issue some gold coins. The first large-scale, private issuance of pure gold coins was under King Croesus (560-546 B.C.), the ruler of ancient Lydia, modern-day western Turkey. Stamped with his royal emblem of the facing heads of a lion and a bull, these first known coins eventually became the standard of exchange for worldwide trade and commerce.
 
Gold is traditionally weighed in Troy Ounces (31.1035 grammes). It has a specific gravity of 19.3, meaning that it is 19.3 times heavier than water. So gold weighs 19.3 kilograms per litre. With the density of gold at 19.32 g/cm3, a troy ounce of gold would have a volume of 1.64 cm3. A tonne of gold would therefore have a volume of 51, 760 cm3, which would be equivalent to a cube of side 37.27cm (Approx. 1' 3''). At the end of 2003, Gold Field Mineral Services (GFMS) estimated that above-ground stocks represented a total volume of approximately 150,500 tonnes, of which 61% had been mined since 1950. All the gold ever mined would form a cube measuring only 19m on each side. This cube would, for example, easily fit under the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

The proportion of gold in jewellery is measured on the carat (or karat) scale. The word carat comes from the carob seed, which was originally used to balance scales in Oriental bazaars. Pure gold is designated 24 carat, which compares with the "fineness" by which bar gold is defined.

Pure gold Gold alloys

Caratage

Fineness

% Gold

24
1000
100
22
916.7
91.67
18
750
75
14
583.3
58.3
10
416.7
41.67
9
375
37.5
 

The gold stored at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is secured in a most unusual vault. It rests on the bedrock of Manhattan Island — one of the few foundations considered adequate to support the weight of the vault, its door, and the gold inside — 80 feet below street level and 50 feet below sea level.

In the middle of 1997, the Fed’s vault contained roughly 269 million troy ounces of gold (1 troy oz. is 1.1 times as heavy as the avoirdupois ounce, with which we are more familiar), representing 25 to 30 percent of the world’s official monetary gold reserves. At the time, the vault gold’s value was $11 billion at the official U.S. Government price of $42.2222 per troy ounce, or about $86 billion at the market price of $319 an ounce. One of the vault’s gold bars (approximately 27.4 pounds) is valued at a $319 market price, about $127,000.
 
 
The UK adopted a gold standard after the Napoleonic wars in the early part of the 19th century. In the second half of that century, a number of nations in Europe and elsewhere followed suit, though some for a time based their currencies on a bimetallic gold/silver standard. The United States adopted the gold standard de facto in 1879, by making the "greenbacks" that the Government had issued during the Civil War period convertible into gold; it then formally adopted the gold standard by legislation in 1900. By 1914, the gold standard had been accepted by a large number of countries, although it was certainly not universal.

The "gold specie" standard called for fixed exchange rates, with parities set for participating currencies in terms of gold, and provided that any paper currency could on demand be exchanged for gold specie at the central bank of issue. The system was designed to bring automatic adjustment in case of external deficits or surpluses in transactions between countries, that is, balance of payments imbalances. The underlying concept was that any deficit country would have to surrender gold to cover its deficit, with the result that the volume of its money would be reduced, leading to lower prices, while the influx of that gold into the surplus country would expand the volume of that country’s money and lead to higher prices.

In the foreign exchange market, under the gold standard, exchange rates could, in principle, fluctuate only within very narrow limits determined by the costs of shipping and insuring gold. Thus, if U.S. residents accumulated pounds sterling as a result of exporting more goods and services to Britain than they imported and being paid in pounds for the excess, the U.S. holders of sterling had the option of converting pounds into gold at par value at the Bank of England and shipping the gold back to New York. During the 1880-1914 period, the "mint parity" between the U.S. dollar and sterling was approximately $4.87, based on a U.S. official gold price of $20.67 per ounce and a U.K. official gold price of £ 4.24 per ounce. The sterling/dollar exchange rate would not fluctuate beyond the "gold points"—about three cents above and below the mint parity—which represented the cost of shipping and insuring gold, since at any exchange rate outside the gold points it would be possible to gain an arbitrage profit by converting currency into gold and shipping the gold to the other centre. While some gold transfers actually took place under this system, such shipments frequently were avoided by monetary policy moves. In the example above, the U.K. might raise interest rates to attract capital inflows—i.e., increase the demand for sterling—and counterbalance the financial impact of the import excess. Higher interest rates also would have a deflationary effect in the deficit country.

This automatic operation of the balance of payments adjustment process under the gold standard required, in theory, that in their financial policies, participating countries give an absolute priority to external adjustment over domestic objectives. This meant that in any periods of conflict between domestic and external objectives, policy tools might not be available to be used for domestic problems of recession, unemployment, or inflation. But the philosophy widely held in those pre-Keynesian times was that economies would tend naturally toward reasonably high levels of employment and reasonable price stability without such government policy actions.

For a forty-year period there were no changes in the exchange rates of the United States, UK, Germany, and France (though the same did not hold for a number of other countries). There were few barriers to gold shipments and few capital controls in the major countries. Capital flows generally seem to have played a stabilising, rather than destabilising, role. After the outbreak of the First World War, one combatant country after another suspended gold convertibility, and floating exchange rates prevailed. The United States, which entered the war late, maintained gold convertibility, but the dollar effectively floated against the other currencies, which were no longer convertible into dollars. After the war, and in the early and mid-twenties, many exchange rates fluctuated sharply. Most currencies experienced substantial devaluations against the dollar; the U.S. currency had greatly improved its competitive strength over European currencies during the war, in line with the strengthening of the relative position of the U.S. economy.

In Europe, especially in the UK, there was a widespread desire to return to the stability of the gold standard, and a worry about the growing attractiveness of the dollar—which was convertible into gold—and of dollar-denominated assets. Following a disastrous five years back on the gold standard, the UK abandoned it in 1931, and others followed over the next few years. In 1933, US President Franklin Roosevelt imposed a ban on U.S. citizens’ buying, selling, or owning gold. While the U.S. Government continued to sell gold to foreign central banks and government institutions, the ban prevented hoarders from profiting after Congress devalued the dollar (in terms of gold) in January 1934. This action raised the official price of gold by more than 65 percent (from $20.67 to $35 per troy ounce). Gold coins and certificates considered collectors’ items were exempt from the prohibition, and artistic and industrial users of gold were permitted to deal in the metal under a special Treasury license. Gold at $35 set off a mining boom. US output rose from 2.6 m.oz in 1933 to 4.4 m.oz in 1936, and peaked at 6.0 m.oz in 1940 (not equalled until 1988). Canada hit 5.5 m.oz in 1941 (best until 1991). World output up from 20 m.oz to 38.6 m.oz by 1940.

In 1971 President Richard Nixon ended US dollar convertibility to gold and the central role of gold in world currency systems ended. The dollar and gold floated and in January 1980 the gold price hit a record of $850 per ounce against a background of an international crisis arising from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Islamic Revolution in Iran. In 2006 dollars, the all-time record price would be $2,100.
 
 

Historical Gold Prices 1800-2006

 

Date

High

Low

Close

12/31/1800 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1801 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1802 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1803 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1804 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1805 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1806 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1807 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1808 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1809 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1810 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1811 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1812 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1813 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1814 21.79 19.3939 21.79
12/31/1815 23.07 19.78 22.16
12/31/1816 22.16 19.74 19.84
12/31/1817 19.89 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1818 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1819 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1820 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1821 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1822 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1823 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1824 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1825 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1826 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1827 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1828 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1829 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1830 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1831 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1832 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1833 19.3939 19.3939 19.3939
12/31/1834 20.69 19.3939 20.69
12/31/1835 20.69 20.69 20.69
12/31/1836 20.69 20.69 20.69
12/31/1837 22.7 20.67 21.6
12/31/1838 21.52 20.69 20.73
12/31/1839 20.73 20.73 20.73
12/31/1840 20.73 20.73 20.73
12/31/1841 20.73 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1842 20.73 20.6718 20.69
12/31/1843 20.71 20.67 20.6718
12/31/1844 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1845 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1846 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1847 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1848 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1849 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1850 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1851 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1852 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1853 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1854 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1855 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1856 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1857 20.81 20.6718 20.71
12/31/1858 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1859 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1860 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1861 20.6718 20.6718 20.6718
12/31/1862 27.542 20.774 27.542
12/31/1863 35.448 25.244 31.394
12/31/1864 57.052 31.313 46.356
12/31/1865 48.014 26.585 29.896
12/31/1866 32.191 25.838 27.49
12/31/1867 30.1 27.284 27.593
12/31/1868 30.695 27.309 27.827
12/31/1869 29.298 24.701 24.728
12/31/1870 25.217 22.737 22.893
12/31/1871 23.718 22.402 22.531
12/31/1872 23.849 22.426 23.149
12/31/1873 24.493 21.936 22.789
12/31/1874 23.537 22.531 23.123
12/31/1875 24.235 23.098 23.332
12/31/1876 23.693 22.116 22.116
12/31/1877 22.142 21.187 21.239
12/31/1878 21.239 20.67 20.67
12/31/1879 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1880 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1881 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1882 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1883 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1884 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1885 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1886 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1887 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1888 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1889 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1890 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1891 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1892 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1893 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1894 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1895 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1896 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1897 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1898 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1899 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1900 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1901 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1902 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1903 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1904 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1905 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1906 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1907 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1908 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1909 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1910 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1911 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1912 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1913 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1914 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1915 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1916 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1917 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1918 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1919 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1920 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1921 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1922 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1923 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1924 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1925 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1926 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1927 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1928 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1929 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1930 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1931 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1932 20.67 20.67 20.67
12/31/1933 34.06 20.67 32.32
12/31/1934 35 34.06 35
12/31/1935 35 35 35
12/31/1936 35 35 35
12/31/1937 35 35 35
12/31/1938 35 35 35
12/31/1939 35 35 35
12/31/1940 34.75 34.1 34.5
12/31/1941 35.5 34.25 35.5
12/31/1942 36.25 35 35.5
12/31/1943 36.5 35.5 36.5
12/31/1944 36.75 36 36.25
12/31/1945 38.25 36.25 37.25
12/31/1946 39.5 37.75 38.25
12/31/1947 43.25 37.5 43
12/31/1948 43.25 41.5 42
12/31/1949 42.5 40.5 40.5
12/31/1950 41.5 36.5 40.25
12/31/1951 44 40 40
12/31/1952 40.75 38.15 38.7
12/31/1953 39.25 35.25 35.5
12/31/1954 35.5 35.25 35.25
12/31/1955 35.25 35.15 35.15
12/31/1956 35.2 35.15 35.2
12/31/1957 35.25 35.15 35.25
12/31/1958 35.25 35.25 35.25
12/31/1959 35.25 35.25 35.25
12/31/1960 36.5 35.2 36.5
12/31/1961 36.5 35.15 35.5
12/31/1962 35.5 35.2 35.35
12/31/1963 35.42 35.25 35.25
12/31/1964 35.35 35.25 35.35
12/31/1965 35.5 35.25 35.5
12/31/1966 35.5 35.3 35.4
12/31/1967 35.5 35.27 35.5
12/31/1968 43.5 35.85 43.5
12/31/1969 43.5 35.2 35.4
12/31/1970 39.9 34.9 37.6
12/31/1971 44.2 37.7 43.8
12/31/1972 70.3 44.3 65.2
12/31/1973 126.3 64.2 114.5
12/31/1974 195.5 116.8 195.2
12/31/1975 199.1 138.5 150.8
12/31/1976 151 109.5 145.1
12/31/1977 180.7 136.5 179.2
12/31/1978 264.2 178.9 244.9
12/31/1979 578.7 233.8 578.7
12/31/1980 850.0 495.2 641.2
12/31/1981 647.1 415.5 430.8
12/31/1982 522.8 318.7 484.5
12/31/1983 545.6 398.5 415
12/31/1984 435.7 328.7 331.3
12/31/1985 364.1 301.6 354.2
12/31/1986 471.8 351.8 435.2
12/31/1987 531.7 419.4 522.9
12/31/1988 522.2 421.9 441
12/31/1989 448.5 383 433.4
12/31/1990 451.8 370.9 423.8
12/31/1991 432.7 369.1 379.9
12/31/1992 384.6 353.1 356.3
12/31/1993 435.3 349.7 419.2
12/31/1994 425.8 396.4 409.8
12/31/1995 422.9 385.2 385.6
12/31/1996 401.3 367.8 367.8
12/31/1997 365.2 282.5 288.8
12/31/1998 313.8 274.1 288
12/31/1999 326 252.3 287.5
12/31/2000 316.45 264 272.15
12/31/2001 294.8 255.3 278.7
12/31/2002 349.25 278.2 346.7
12/31/2003 416.00 322.75 414.8
12/31/2004 455.75 373.50 438.10
12/31/2005 540.90 410.40 517.20
07/04/2006 730.00 516.75 621.50