War and Gold PDF Download

Author: Kwasi Kwarteng
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610391969
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
The world was wild for gold. After discovering the Americas, and under pressure to defend their vast dominion, the Habsburgs of Spain promoted gold and silver exploration in the New World with ruthless urgency. But, the great influx of wealth brought home by plundering conquistadors couldn't compensate for the Spanish government's extraordinary military spending, which would eventually bankrupt the country multiple times over and lead to the demise of the great empire. Gold became synonymous with financial dependability, and following the devastating chaos of World War I, the gold standard came to express the order of the free market system. Warfare in pursuit of wealth required borrowing -- a quickly compulsive dependency for many governments. And when people lost confidence in the promissory notes and paper currencies issued during wartime, governments again turned to gold. In this captivating historical study, Kwarteng exposes a pattern of war-waging and financial debt -- bedmates like April and taxes that go back hundreds of years, from the French Revolution to the emergence of modern-day China. His evidence is as rich and colorful as it is sweeping. And it starts and ends with gold.

Author: Kwasi Kwarteng
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408848171
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 709

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Book Description
_______________ 'Enormously entertaining' - Sunday Times 'Exhaustive and convincingly argued' - Observer 'A complicated story well told, from which financial lessons emerge naturally' - Financial Times _______________ A unique look at the financial world and its troubled history, from the disaster that befell Spain in the sixteenth century to the 2008 global financial crisis In the sixteenth century, Spanish conquistadors discovered the New World. The vast quantities of gold and silver would make their country rich, yet the new wealth, which was plunged into multiple wars, would eventually lead to the economic ruin of their empire. Here, historian and politician Kwasi Kwarteng shows that this moment in world history has been echoed many times, from the French Revolution to both World Wars, right up to the present day, when our own financial crisis saw many of our great nations slip into financial trouble. Kwarteng reveals a pattern of war-waging, financial debt and fluctuations between paper money and the gold standard, and creates a compelling study of the powerful relationship that has shaped the world as we know it, that between war and gold. _______________ 'Searing ... Few stones are left unlifted in this study, the subtitle of which gives every clue as to its ambition' - Independent

Author: Caroline Alexander
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1426208146
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Presents a history of England from the departure of Roman forces in 450 A.D. to the Norman invasion of 1066, focusing on the gold and silver artifacts of the Staffordshire Hoard found in 2009 to highlight the events and art of the period.

Author: Antony Sutton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781939438126
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
The War on Gold is a definitive study of the past, present, and future of the metal that Keynesian economists and political schemers have denounced as a barbarous relic. The war on gold began several centuries ago, when politicians discovered they could print limitless amounts of paper currency for a small fraction of the cost of using gold as money. It has accelerated in recent years...as the U.S. acquired paper debt, deficits, which led to double-dip inflation, and internationalists plotted to create a new world order.

Author: Leonard L. Richards
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307277577
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Award-winning historian Leonard L. Richards gives us an authoritative and revealing portrait of an overlooked harbinger of the terrible battle that was to come. When gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in 1848, Americans of all stripes saw the potential for both wealth and power. Among the more calculating were Southern slave owners. By making California a slave state, they could increase the value of their slaves—by 50 percent at least, and maybe much more. They could also gain additional influence in Congress and expand Southern economic clout, abetted by a new transcontinental railroad that would run through the South. Yet, despite their machinations, California entered the union as a free state. Disillusioned Southerners would agitate for even more slave territory, leading to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and, ultimately, to the Civil War itself.

Author: Robert J. Mrazek
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312254223
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
The discovery of a long-guarded secret sends young Jamie Lockhart on the adventure of his life. Ultimately, the limits of his courage and endurance are tested during the final, desperate months of the Civil War. Illustrations.

Author: Martin Meredith
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 145871876X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
SOUTHERN AFRICA was once regarded as a worthless jumble of British colonies, Boer republics, and African chiefdoms, a troublesome region of little interest to the outside world. But then prospectors chanced upon the world's richest deposits of diamonds and gold, setting off a titanic struggle between the British and the Boers for control of the region. It culminated in the costliest, bloodiest, and most humiliating war that Britain had waged in nearly a century, and left the Boer republics devastated. In this gripping history of the turbulent years leading up to the founding of the modern state of South Africa in 1910, Martin Meredith portrays the great wealth and raw power, the deceit, corruption, and racism that lay behind Britain's empire-building in southern Africa. Diamonds, Gold, and War is a tale of high adventure, high fi nance, and high politics that also shows the massive impact of white expansion on indigenous African societies. And it explains the rise of the virulent Afrikaner nationalism that eventually took hold, with repercussions lasting nearly a century.

Author: E. B. Tucker
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781735104812
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Investment industry veteran and gold expert E.B. Tucker explores why now is the time to protect your wealth. He guides readers through a history of government money losing value compared to gold which stands the test of time. A "how to guide" for anyone concerned about the state of money today, this 3-part book explains why gold is a trusted asset in the ranks of the world's financial elite.Gold is the only asset that's not someone else's liability. Apartments rely on paying tenants, stocks rely on company profits, bonds rely on stable interest payments. Gold doesn't rely on anyone or anything for its value. That makes it unique among assets. During a period of financial turmoil, it's invaluable. Tucker guides investors in simple terms through the ways to own gold, from physical bars, to coins, and even mining stocks. He also discusses his favorite method, gold royalty companies. From a financial novice to an investment professional looking to get up to speed on the gold market, Why Gold? Why Now? is the essential guide to the world of gold.

Author: Fergus M. Bordewich
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 045149444X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 493

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Book Description
The story of how Congress helped win the Civil War-placing a dynamic House and Senate, rather than Lincoln, at the center of the conflict.

Author: David Green
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300134517
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
What life was like for ordinary French and English people, embroiled in a devastating century-long conflict that changed their world The Hundred Years War (1337-1453) dominated life in England and France for well over a century. It became the defining feature of existence for generations. This sweeping book is the first to tell the human story of the longest military conflict in history. Historian David Green focuses on the ways the war affected different groups, among them knights, clerics, women, peasants, soldiers, peacemakers, and kings. He also explores how the long war altered governance in England and France and reshaped peoples' perceptions of themselves and of their national character. Using the events of the war as a narrative thread, Green illuminates the realities of battle and the conditions of those compelled to live in occupied territory; the roles played by clergy and their shifting loyalties to king and pope; and the influence of the war on developing notions of government, literacy, and education. Peopled with vivid and well-known characters--Henry V, Joan of Arc, Philippe the Good of Burgundy, Edward the Black Prince, John the Blind of Bohemia, and many others--as well as a host of ordinary individuals who were drawn into the struggle, this absorbing book reveals for the first time not only the Hundred Years War's impact on warfare, institutions, and nations, but also its true human cost.