Chapter 258： gold

What allowed Edel to let go of his work was because of an accident in the gold mine.

Near Portia, a small town in Valcea in western Romania, a gold mining company broke its embankment due to recent heavy rains, causing a large amount of wastewater to flood into the river. As a result, the Oort River, a tributary of the Danube River, was polluted. A large number of river fish died as a result and the river water was not available for humans and animals. More than 50,000 people along the river were suffering from water shortages. The direct economic loss reached 1.5 million lei and the indirect loss reached 5.4 million lei.

Edel was also very annoyed at the occurrence of such a gold mine pollution case. He watched the news and broke in and said the guard. "Please arrange for the Prime Minister to handle this matter, and let the Prime Minister handle it no matter who is involved. I have no opinion."

"Your Majesty."

After Edel watched the guards go out, the prime minister should deal with this headache.

After the establishment of the Kingdom of Romania, most of the domestic gold mines were taken over by the government, and only a few were left behind for various reasons. However, the gold produced by these private gold mines must also be purchased by a reserve bank designated by the state. In order to make profits, these private gold mines are inferior to state-owned gold mines in all aspects. This is the case with this accidental gold mine.

At present, most of the gold mines in Romania are rock gold, so mining pits and other various

Gold mines are very important to Romania, and even the reason why Latin is used in Romania in the Balkans is a result of these gold mines. The Dacias (the ancestors of the Romanians) who lived in Romania in the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC made exquisite gold ornaments, which were exported to the Black Sea and various parts of the Mediterranean.

At the beginning of the second century AD, the Roman Empire defeated the local Dacia kingdom and organized this area into a province of the Roman Empire. Most of the territory of the Roman Empire was south of the Danube, and almost no province was north of the Danube. Romania was probably the only one. Because of the gold mines, this province was very important to the finances of the Roman Empire.

The gold mine attracted a large number of Romans to search for gold. These people brought Roman Latin and washed away the language of the locals. As a result, the land on the north bank of the Danube was quickly romanized, and a large number of local people also used Latin. . Even after the Roman Empire withdrew from here, the local Dacia people still continued to use Latin, which also constitutes the difference between the Romanians and the surrounding Slavs.

Romania is still the second largest gold producer in Europe, reaching a production of 28 tons in 1913, ranking second in European production. In the initial industrialization process, Edel had forgotten to mechanize the Romanian gold mining industry, and he only noticed it under the reminder of Viscount Adri. Then a large amount of money was invested in this industry to increase its output, but for the gold mining industry, discovering new gold mines is the best way to expand production capacity.

The largest gold mine in Romania is the Smitok Gold Mine, which has a total reserves of 178 tons and provides five or six tons of gold annually. This gold mine is not too big in Europe. Fortunately, there are more gold mines in the Carpathian Mountains, which makes Romania's production look impressive, but it is still far behind the world's gold production.

The discovery of the rock gold mine on the eastern **** of the Ural Mountains in Russia in the middle of the 18th century showed that Russia’s annual gold output had reached 43.5 tons by 1840. By 1847, Russia’s annual gold output accounted for 60% of the world’s total annual output. But these achievements of the Russians pale in comparison with the gains made by people in California and Australia in the future.

Gold was discovered in California in 1848. Thousands of people soon gathered here to find gold mines. In the first year, they produced 250,000 U.S. dollars of gold and increased by 40 times in the second year. After that, gold production increased year by year. By 1852, the output reached 77 tons, and in 1853 it reached 93 tons.

In 1851, three years after the discovery of gold in the United States, gold was also discovered in Australia, and Australian gold production began to increase rapidly. In 1852, Australia produced 26.4 tons of gold, and in 1853 the annual gold production reached 70 tons.

Then South Africa discovered gold in 1886. In 1887, South Africa's gold production was only 1.2 tons. Five years later, it increased by 25 times to 30 tons. In 1898, it reached 120 tons, ranking first in the world. Until now, South Africa is the world's largest producer of gold and diamonds, and South Africa's proven gold reserves have reached 40% of the world's total reserves. Britain spent hundreds of millions of pounds to win these gold mines without losing money.

It was Canada that caught up with the last major development of gold productivity in the 19th century. In 1896, two gold prospectors Henderson and Carmack discovered gold in Klondike when they were fishing for salmon, which gave birth to a new city, Dawson City.

Therefore, Romania's output is ranked top in Europe, where gold mines are barren, and it is far from enough in the world. Although Romania's gold production is not high, Romania's gold reserves are fairly good. Romania’s gold reserves now reach 1,216 tons, which is a record high.

The increase in Romania’s gold reserves was thanks to the help of the war. If it weren’t for this war, how could Romania get so much gold reserves You know, at the end of 1913, Romania had only stored 450 tons of gold. , This is still the result of industrialization. Otherwise, Romania’s gold reserves are even smaller, which shows how much gold Romania has harvested from the Allied camp.

After obtaining this gold, Romania can use the gold to issue more currency to prosper the domestic economy. After major European countries banned the exchange of gold, the Romanian currency Lei, which still adheres to the gold coin standard system, can be said to be one of the few European currencies that is still strong. A large amount of capital poured into Romania in pursuit of value preservation and profit, but these collected a small part of the capital that fled Europe, and most of it was absorbed by the United States on the other side of the ocean. That's why the United States made most of the profits in World War I.

Even if it is only a small influx of capital, it still brings a lot of help to the Romanian economy. The Romanian currency, the Lei, is not only used domestically, but the countries in the Balkans, as well as Austria-Hungary and Russia, have flowed in. Mainly because Romania still uses the gold coin standard system.

A certain amount of gold is used as a currency unit to mint gold coins as the standard currency; gold coins can be freely minted and melted, with unlimited legal solvency, while restricting the casting and solvency of other mint coins; auxiliary coins and bank notes can be freely exchanged for gold coins or equivalent Gold; with gold as the only reserve. This is the gold coin standard system.

Moreover, under this kind of system, it is possible to eliminate the ills of price confusion and instability of currency circulation that exist under the replication standard system. It ensures that the currency in circulation does not depreciate against the standard currency metal gold, and ensures the unity of the world market and the relative stability of the foreign exchange market. It is a relatively stable currency system.

That's why Edel attaches so much importance to gold, and he also knows that this gold standard system will continue to be oppressed until the end of World War II.