摘要:本文是分析黄金在经济中的作用的瑞典留学生论文,黄金已经在人类的历史中存在了数千年。它是最早转化成主要用于仪式或装饰性目的的金属之一。事实上,这种即漂亮又易于制造的金属激发了工匠用它来创造物件,它不仅是装饰品,而且也是财富和权力有力的象征。
ects and Gold growing demand both from hedger and speculators, the analysis of the ‘little yellow god [16] ’ strongly caught my interest.
After having introduced Gold outstanding features as investment instrument and real asset, and the role it played within different events happened on the financial market, I will focus my analysis on Gold market players and Gold price determination.
Gold Market: Supply and Demand
Man began Gold mining activities around 6000 years ago, in the regions where the first civilization arose, namely North Africa, Mesopotamia, the Indus river valley and the eastern Mediterranean.
This practice is so remote that its tracks, preserved in mythology, are very obscure. In fact, referring to the famous legend of Jason’s Golden Fleece [17] , just few people knows that the coveted sheepskin, once immersed in water rapids of mountain streams, it could play the role of filter in order to hold small particles of Gold.
According to approximate estimations, it is considered that a quantity between 130.000 and 160.000 tons of Gold has been mined throughout history. In order to better understand this figure, we can think that, if piled all together, Gold above-ground stocks would create a solid cube with sides of 20 meters. The figure is not high, but it is important to remember that this precious metal, once mined from earth, thanks to its natural and social properties, it does not disappear nor fall back into the ground, water or air. In fact Gold doesn’t decay with time, as all others metals do.
As Peter L. Bernstein states in its book “The Power of Gold” states: “Unlike any other elements on earth, almost all the Gold ever mined is still around, much of it now in museums bedecking statues of the ancient gods and their furniture or in numismatic displays, some on the pages of illustrated manuscripts, some in gleaming bars buried in the dark cellars of central banks, a lot of it on fingers, ears and teeth. There is a residue that rests quietly in shipwrecks at the bottom of the seas. [18] ”
Obviously, this does not exclude that, while Gold was in circulation in the form of money, some amounts of it has been consumed or lost. It is estimated that, at least 10% of all Gold mined has been hopelessly lost, being seabed or buried treasure somewhere, or consumed during its processing.
A so great amount of Gold has been extracted that the current world production, around 2,500 tons for 2009, adds less than 2% each year to that figure. Anyway it is crashing to think that, more than 90% of Gold has been produced after 1848 [19] . The crucial turning point in Gold production can certainly be considered the discovery of Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California, as this event triggered Californian Gold rush of 1848, affecting Gold mining industry forever.
Historically, since 1880, South Africa has been the major nation-source accounting for roughly 2/3 of all the Gold ever produced. Johannesburg has been funded on the top of one of the largest Gold mine in the world and the First Boer War between Britain and the South African republic has been partially triggered by disputes over South African mines ownership and exploitation.
Also U.S.A, Australia and Canada have historically played the role of Gold main sources. Anyway, South Africa leadership as Gold producer has been eroded within the pas
本论文由英语论文网提供整理,提供论文代写,英语论文代写,代写论文,代写英语论文,代写留学生论文,代写英文论文,留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。