JOIN USWhen I see people at weddings and on streets sporting bright versions of this metal, or crowding shops to buy it while being aware that it’s a dead investment, I cannot help wondering when this obsession began.
A funny fact about the discovery of gold is that no one knows when it was discovered. But it has certainly been with us for long. A culture centered in today’s eastern Europe began to use gold mined around the year 4000 BC, according to archaeology. In the year 3000 BC, the Sumer civilisation of southern Iraq used gold to fashion a wide range of jewellery in varied and sophisticated styles, some of which are worn today. We all know of King Tut’s gold-plated coffin, whose quality shows that Egyptians were advanced in the art of working with gold.
Where does gold come from? Gold that was in the Earth’s own makeup got pulled into its core along with other iron-loving elements like platinum and nickel when molten iron sank into it, say scientists. There is actually enough gold in the core to coat its surface in 1.5 feet of the stuff. But it’s inaccessible except when it comes out through volcanoes in small amounts. Then, where did the gold in our mines come from? It arrived in huge meteorites that bombarded the Earth more than 4 million years ago, after the core had fully formed and the crust had cooled.
But the person shopping in a gold showroom is hardly thinking of this. Aurum, gold’s Latin name, means ‘glow of sunrise’, and gold is surely an attractive metal. It is one of the least reactive metals, therefore it does not tarnish, and remains a bright yellow after thousands of years — ask treasure seekers. It can also be hammered or rolled into thin sheets (malleable) and drawn into wires (ductile), and it conducts electricity. One of the other big reasons for gold’s value is its scarcity.
So yes, gold is certainly attractive. However, the aura of gold has always been tainted with slavery, oppression and cruelty. To recover gold from the earth, it takes a lot of skilled human labour, and this is obtained mostly through slavery. It’s enough to make one feel sick to think that. Even today, over 20% of the gold mined in the world is through the use of ‘slaves’.
As if that were not enough, a gram of gold costs nearly Rs 3,000. A decent piece of jewellery will weigh about 8 to 10 grams, which is between 20 and 30,000 rupees, more than what over 40% of India’s people make in a year! So one small piece of bling can take care of a family for a year. How is that for perspective?
Half of the country’s gold purchases are for wedding jewellery. While it is traditional and honourable to give gifts of gold to the bride, people frequently go overboard.
And for those who claim that gold can be an insurance against bad times, gold loans give only 60% of the value. Moreover, with prices at this level, robbery and associated crime have surged, making the country unsafe for all of us. In the United States, thieves have begun targeting the houses of Indians since they’ve realised that Indians own a lot of gold which can easily be sold but hard to trace.
Today, we meet people whose self-worth is tied up in money, and therefore the gold they own. Businesses that trade in this commodity go all out to promote this idea. If advertisers are to be believed, the joy on a bride’s face is not so much due to the fact that she is going to enter into the holy sacrament of marriage with her beloved, but more due to the quantity of jewellery she wears. You are precious and rare, and you deserve something that is also equally precious and rare, they tell us. However, don’t forget that platinum and rhodium are two elements that are rarer and more precious than gold.
One problem with putting self-worth on par with gold is that, in today’s era of gold-plating, no one knows if the self-worth is high. Who knows if the wonderful waist-length chain is really 22-carat gold? In such situations, you might be tempted to wear the price tag along with the piece of jewellery.
Finally, to put things in perspective, consider this: early Egyptian’s medium of exchange was not gold, but barley. Even funnier is this fact: before the Hall–Héroult process was developed in the late 1880s to extract aluminium from bauxite ores, it was extremely difficult to purify. Therefore, at one time, pure aluminium was more valuable than gold. Bars of aluminium were exhibited at the Exposition Universelle of 1855. Napolean III of France is reputed to have given a banquet where the most honoured guests were given aluminium utensils, while the others had to make-do with gold. How slighted the others must have felt.