Description
Book SynopsisGold remains a highly prized and impactful resource within the global economy. From the insatiable demand for gold in the electronics that permeate our day-to-day lives to the environmental desolation driven by gold mining in the Amazon, the gold trade continues to touch the lives and livelihoods of people across the world.
Bloomfield and Maconachie tell the intriguing story of the yellow metal, tracing the seismic shifts in the industry over the past few decades. They show how huge purchases of gold reserves by BRICS countries mark the shifting balance of power away from the West, and how rising affluence in India and China has led to a surging demand for gold jewellery, calling into question current approaches to make supply chains more responsible. Explaining why gold is so difficult to regulate and why it is only becoming more so, the authors suggest ways we could, collectively, make practices work better for the countless workers and communities who suffer at the producer end of the supply chain. Linking local to global, producer to consumer, and gold’s extraction from the Earth to the financial centres that fuel it, this book offers a probing analysis that reveals who wins and who loses and what this means for the future of gold.
Trade Review‘Gold traces familiar histories and possible futures of a commodity that is associated with beauty, wealth and yet also so much destruction. Readable, accessible and brimming with insights that keep readers on their toes, the book will be immensely useful for students, teachers and general interest readers alike.’
Anthony Bebbington, Clark University
‘Working as modern-day political economy alchemists, Bloomfield and Maconachie mobilise their deep expertise to explain why it is so difficult to turn gold mining into valuable forms of development.’
Philippe Le Billon, University of British Columbia and author of Wars of Plunder
