In the United States, Canada, South Africa, and Australia, 19th century gold rushes either brought people and capital to far corners of the world or shifted people around these regions from farms into mines or goldfields. They differed in their precise effects but were almost always the most significant economic events in their respective…
For centuries, investments in mines have been particularly speculative. As such, they tend to attract small investors rather than institutions. Also, their share prices can be subject to very large and swift movements once news, or mere rumors, get out. At the end of 1969, mining shares in Australia surged higher before very swiftly giving…
The economic fate of Argentina, a foodstuff exporter supporting one of the richest populations just over a century ago, is well known. New Zealand’s late 19th and early 20th century history is similar in many respects. Like Argentina, faraway New Zealand was also exposed to the dramatic fluctuations of commodity prices and financial conditions intrinsic…
Far away from sources of foreign monies and lacking their own, early Australia was forced to improvise. Barter was especially impractical and attempts to create a local coinage were unsuccessful until the early 20th century. Banknotes provided the solution for some parts of the country but in remote areas far from any banks, makeshift systems…
Boom and bust cycles in securities markets are very familiar and usually ridiculed in retrospect. It is easier to blame the victims of speculative episodes in ‘paper assets’ like stocks and bonds than those ensnared in contracting markets for ‘real property’ like real estate. Crises in real estate markets trouble the minds of observers far…
It was in fairly modern times that money transformed from being purely a physical thing, tangible coins or paper changing hands, to an ethereal substance. Today, when money is used, it largely moves only in a digital sense and before the digital era, it may have changed hands without physically moving but instead by the…
