The history of human discovery and use of gold is earlier than that of metals such as copper and iron. It was discovered by humans in the Neolithic Age from 4000 to 5000 years ago. Because gold itself shines, gold means “sparkling dusk†in Latin, and “can touch the sun†in ancient Egyptian text. Because of its good stability and rarity, gold has become a precious metal and has been used as a reserve for wealth. Because gold has special natural attributes, people are given social attributes according to their own needs, that is, currency functions. Marx wrote in Capital: "Money is not gold or silver, but gold and silver are naturally money." At the beginning of the 19th century, the UK, as the world's manufacturing center and financial center, officially implemented the gold standard system, that is, gold is money, and it can be freely flowing, freely cast, and freely exported. In 1867, at a meeting held in Paris, economically developed countries jointly recognized that gold is the world's currency. The gold standard has since moved from Europe to the world. In 1914, because of the outbreak of the First World War, European countries banned the free export of gold, and the gold standard stopped. After the end of the war, the world no longer circulates gold but banknotes, and banknotes cannot be exchanged for gold at will. The European powers such as Britain and France have implemented the "golden standard system", which was the country with a large amount of gold at that time. Other countries implement the gold exchange standard system, which will deposit their own gold and foreign exchange into the country that implements the gold standard. If they want to exchange gold, they can only convert their national currency into the currency of the gold standard country according to the legal exchange rate. The country exchanges gold. In its domestic gold can not be circulated, only retaining gold as a function of foreign exchange reserves and international trade payments. In the 1920s, the British pound was an international currency, and the currencies of various countries formed an exchange relationship with the British pound. In 1929, the world economic crisis marked by the collapse of the Wall Street stock market in the United States broke out. The UK abandoned the gold standard and the pound depreciated. Many countries’ foreign exchange reserves were in trouble because they were pounds instead of gold. In 1944, representatives of the 44 countries participating in the preparations for the United Nations held a world monetary and financial conference in Bretton Woods Park, and established an international monetary system centered on the US dollar through the International Monetary Fund Agreement. The US dollar is linked to gold, which is commonly known as the US dollar. From then on. The core elements of the Bretton Woods International Monetary System are: ◠The US dollar is the basis for international currency settlement and is the main international reserve currency. ◠The US dollar is pegged to gold, other currencies are pegged to the US dollar, and the US is obligated to exchange gold at an official price of $35 per ounce. ◠Implement a fixed exchange rate system. The exchange rate between the currencies of various countries and the US dollar generally fluctuates within a range of 1% of the parity. Therefore, gold also adopts a fixed price system. If the fluctuation is too large, central banks are obliged to intervene. In the 1960s, due to the Vietnam War, the fiscal deficit increased, the dollar began to depreciate; the European countries recovered economically and had more and more dollars. In the case of unstable US dollars, European countries began to sell the United States. And run on gold. By 1971, US gold reserves had fallen by 61%. The price of gold entered a period of free floating, and the international currency system of Bretton Wood collapsed. In 1976, the Jamaica Agreement adopted by the International Monetary Fund and the amendments to the agreement two years later confirmed the non-monetization of gold. The main contents are: 1. Gold is no longer the standard for currency parity; 2. Abolish the official price of gold, the International Monetary Fund will no longer intervene in the market and implement floating prices; 3. Cancellation of the requirement to use gold to settle accounts with the fund; 4. Sell 1/6 of the Reserve Fund of the International Monetary Fund, and use the profits to establish a concessional loan fund to help low-income countries; 5. Set up special drawing rights instead of gold for certain payments between members and between members and the International Monetary Fund. However, the non-monetization development process of gold did not completely withdraw gold from the currency field. The monetary function of gold remains: 1. There are still a number of legal denominations of gold coins issued and circulated; changes in the price of gold still make an effective tool for measuring the currency, allowing people to evaluate the reference to the state of economic operation; 2. Gold is still an important asset reserve. As of 2001, the central bank’s foreign exchange reserves totaled 29,600 tons of gold, accounting for about 20% of the total human gold production for thousands of years, and 22,200 tons of private storage gold bars. It accounts for 35.7% of the world's total gold. 3. The settlement of settlement with gold is still the only recognized alternative to the use of currency for settlement. The promotion of special drawing rights is far lower than expected. At present, gold is still the fifth most hard currency in the world after the US dollar, euro, pound and yen. The gold market is a global market that can be traded 24 hours a day around the world. Gold is easy to cash in and can be quickly converted into any kind of currency, forming a convenient exchange relationship between gold, currency and foreign exchange. This is a prominent manifestation of the function of gold currency. The non-monetization of gold weakens the traditional currency function of gold, but at the same time it provides opportunities for the development of new gold investment products, and there are an increasing number of gold derivatives. These derivatives are financial asset investment products designed for the profit of gold investment and avoiding market risks. From the perspective of international gold market transactions, the subject matter of trading used by gold investment is mainly derivatives, not real gold. In fact, the gold investment amount of gold bars is only about 3% of the total market volume, and more than 90% of the gold market trading volume is gold financial derivatives trading. The trading of gold financial derivatives has magnified the trading scale of the gold market several times, making the current gold market still dominated by financial attributes under the condition of gold non-monetary, and it is a financial market rather than a general commodity market. Fabric Swatches,Beach Shorts,Beach Trousers,Summer Beach Dresses YANGZHOU XIANGYU GARMENT CO.,LTD , https://www.yzxygarment.com
Explain the history of the evolution of gold's function