A History of Gold as a Commodity and as a Measure of Value Its Fluctuations both in Ancient and Modern Times with an Estimate of the Probable Supplies from California to Australia.

WARD, James.

$3,800.00

Item Number: 117088

London: William S. Orr & Co, c. 1850.

First edition of Ward’s extensive survey of gold and gold mining, published at the height of the California Gold Rush. Octavo, original wrappers bound in full goatskin, retaining a section of the hand-colored folding map of the Gold Regions of Victoria and New South Wales. In near fine condition. Ownership inscription to the front panel of the original wrapper. Rare.

The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. The sudden influx of gold into the money supply reinvigorated the American economy, and the sudden population increase allowed California to go rapidly to statehood, in the Compromise of 1850. Ward's A History of Gold contains an in-depth survey of the character and condition of gold in its natural state, methods for mining it, and reports on his trips to the gold fields of California and Australia. Cowan II p.668; Howes W95; Kurutz California Gold Rush 660.