OK, I just told @siggy47 that I would chill and calm down with the Den sweep/territory take-over... but like, what am I supposed to do when the editors at Mises release my things with such poor timing?!

Our beloved Dominic Frisby has a new book out -- The Secret History of Gold: Myth, Money, Politics & Power, appropriately so on the history of gold. Plenty of amazing gems and entertaining stories in there

"From the Mongols, to probably history’s richest man, to Rome, and the lively portrayal of gold rushes in the 1800s—the California and Alaskan ones, perhaps biggest of all—we get a quick-paced, overview vision of humanity’s relationship with gold, plus ounces of historical nuggets.""From the Mongols, to probably history’s richest man, to Rome, and the lively portrayal of gold rushes in the 1800s—the California and Alaskan ones, perhaps biggest of all—we get a quick-paced, overview vision of humanity’s relationship with gold, plus ounces of historical nuggets."

Always following along humanity’s footsteps, gold is there either in monetary or ornamental form. Up and down the nineteenth century, we learn about how gold served as money precisely because we cannot trust governments to responsibly and appropriately govern it.

This Norway World-War-II story was INSANE:

The most thrilling and intriguing example of gold chases comes from World War II Norway and warms my Scandinavian heart. The Nazi forces infamously hunted for gold across Europe, their first stop upon invading a new country was always the central bank vault. Consequently, occupied nations scurried the national treasure away on trains, boats, and trucks in the dead of night.

The dramatic Norwegian case is worth recounting. In April 1940, the Norwegian government moved the gold to Lillehammer hours before the Nazis arrived in the capital city. In Lillehammer, ordinary Norwegians were told to bring picks and shoves to do road work, but instead packed boxes and boxes of gold to trains to go even further north. The Norwegian coastal village where they arrived next was bombed heavily, some of the gold loaded onto British ships, but most of it made it onto trucks, again bombed by Luftwaffe: “Miraculously, none took a hit,” Frisby tells us. Across fjords and unpaved backroads, sleepless drivers and fishermen ran the gold ever further away from the Germans. Via HMS Glasgow—a British cruiser—and a fleet of ordinary fishing vessels, the gold made it to Tromsø, from which it was then transported over to the UK.

The tragedy of this heroic, golden, Netflix-worthy quest—where only a single bag of gold was lost, courtesy of a greedy sailor onboard HMS Glasgow before presumably throwing a lordly party in his home port—was that none of it was “ever given to those incredible Norwegians who saved the country’s gold.” Almost all of it was eventually sold to finance the exiled Norwegian government. In the account, Frisby demonstrates his excellent writing acumen and storytelling aptitude. It’s truly a bliss to be along for the ride.

Always the Scots. Freakin Glaswegian drunks

"Gold, he writes in a separate World War II segment, 'was silent witness to the horrors and ambitions of the Third Reich. It was a means to finance Nazi aggression, but also to escape it. The densest form of wealth there is, it was key to their pursuit of power.'""Gold, he writes in a separate World War II segment, 'was silent witness to the horrors and ambitions of the Third Reich. It was a means to finance Nazi aggression, but also to escape it. The densest form of wealth there is, it was key to their pursuit of power.'"

> That’s a perfect illustration of how a politically-neutral monetary medium helps good and bad people alike; it’s sort of the point, having nobody entrusted to the task of ruling and regulating the money. 

> gold’s long history is intimately commingled with humanity itself and with the rise and fall of empires. As always, Mr. Frisby’s musings are always worth hearing. And in The Secret History of Gold he really struck gold.