History, Britannia & Gold: A Journey through time
Combining the love of history and gold in this post, including the ridiculously extravagant 'Field of the Cloth of Gold' in 1520 and the worst gold-based decision the UK has EVER made!
The world has long had a love affair with Gold and everything that it can offer.
At the time of writing this article, Gold is circling around $3,300 (£2,500). Gold is doing exactly what is has been doing over time. Gold is:
A store of value
An inflation hedge
Fungible
Divisible
The go to element in times of mass economic uncertainty!
Given the current economic climate, I am slightly amazed that the chances of gold finishing the year above $3,200 is only 57%. I would have thought it would have been higher than that!
Barring an economic crash towards the end of the year (which would involve everything being sold off dramatically) then I would suspect that 57% is a bit on the low side for now!
That being said, today’s post is going to look at the history of gold in relation to England/Britanna/Great Britain/United Kingdom and how gold has played an important role on these shores over time.
This is another dive into combining the love of metals with the love of history. I hope that this is both enjoyable and informative. Please do provide feedback!
We will go through time and look at the following eras:
Bronze + Iron Ages
Roman
Anglo-Saxon
Medieval
Tudor
Stuart
Industrial & Modern
Before we get started, I just wanted to take some time to say a massive thank you to all new and existing Founding Members, Paid Subscribers and Free Subscribers. Thank you for continuing to read and listen to CC as well as sharing CC with your social network. If you are yet to subscribe, then please do so using the button below.
Bronze + Iron Age. The dawn of gold.
There is evidence of golds use dating to the Bronze Age (c. 2500–800 BC).
Small deposits appeared in rivers and streams. These happened most notably in Devon and Cornwall (in the Southwest of England) and the North Pennines (in the North of England). Overall, England lacked the very rich veins of other parts of the world.
The Prehistoric peoples prized gold for its workability and were able to use it to create some superb objects. Arguably the most notable piece of work of gold from this era is the Mold Gold Cape (1900–1600 BC).
Although technically in modern day Wales, this piece of work is likely fairly respective of general cultural trends at the time. It is fascinating that even prehistoric peoples saw gold and knew the attraction that it had.
Gold lunulae and torcs from southern England (and Ireland) further highlighted the role of gold as a status symbol. Even from early times gold had this allure and attraction for something for the elites of society.
In the Iron Age (c. 800 BC - 43 BC) the use of gold use continued but Iron dominated practical applications. Early coins were a blend of either gold + silver or gold + copper. Some excellent hoards have been found over the years, including those at Snettisham (Norfolk).
Hengistbury Head (Dorset) was also a key commerce port in the Iron Age and places like this show use that gold might have been used in exchanges.
Then came the Romans……
Roman England: Imperial Extraction (43 BC - 410 AD)
The Roman conquest in 43 BC coincided with a drive for systematically exploiting resources. Gold output in England was modest in comparison to other parts of Europe such as Hispania and Dacia and this was due to there being a lack of really good and rich gold veins.
The Romans extracted what they could and the most famous example of this is the Ogofau Gold Mine (aka Dolaucothi) in Carmarthenshire, Wales.
The Romans also had incredible engineering skills and were thus able to extract a decent number of resources from England. Techniques such as sluicing were used in the River Tamar (the river that makes up most of the modern-day border between Devon and Cornwall) and its various tributaries.
Despite all of this, England’s gold output was small compared to its lead, tin, and iron. Prominent deposits of these elements were also mainly in Cornwall. History suggests that Britannia contributed less than 1% of Rome’s annual gold supply.
The two primary uses for Gold in Roman England were economic and symbolic. The Roman standard gold coin was the Aureus, which weighed about 8 grams and was minted in Rome.
The Hoxne Hoard (Suffolk) included multiple Aurei along with Silver Denarii. This suggested that these coins were used in high value transactions such as paying troops or the taxation of the elites.
In terms of gold and symbolism in England, then there is no better place than Fishbourne Roman Palace in Sussex. Fishbourne is absolutely incredible (I highly recommend you go there) because of its magnificence and also because gold leaf fragments were used to gild walls and statues.
Trade played a crucial role in England’s gold supply. The port of Londinium (London) was established and quickly became a hub for importing gold from Gaul and Hispania. Gold’s scarcity meant it was rarely used by common Britons (sound familiar?) as the common citizen mainly relied on bronze or iron.
Roman rule weakened in the late 4th century and when Rome abandoned Britain in 410 AD then this meant that gold trade and gold mining also stopped. The collapse of the trade networks meant that Britain became gold poor very quickly. Gold had grown even more scarce!
Anglo-Saxon England: Gold in a Dark Age (410–1066)
Gold was extremely rare in Anglo-Saxon England due to the collapse of trade at the end of the Roman era.
What made this ever so more interesting was that the Germanic tribes that settled from the 5th Century bought with them a form of ‘warrior ethos’ i.e. plunder, tribute and gold. This might sound somewhat barbaric and I don’t mean to do the Anglo-Saxons a disservice
The Crondall Hoard (Hampshire) contained a wide variety of coins and were mainly copies of Roman and Merovingian coins. This helps to show that there was a possible reliance on imported coins/bullion throughout the Anglo-Saxon period.
Sutton Hoo is the name most synonymous with the Anglo-Saxon period and gold in particular. Popularised in the 2021 film The Dig, the Sutton Hoo find is absolutely remarkable and tells us a lot about that era.
The hoard includes the famous Sutton Hoo helmet as well as various artistry such as buckles, shoulder clasps and a purse lid. The Anglo-Saxons managed to turn gold into fabulous treasures with techniques such as filigree and granulation.
Christianity was spread across Britian thanks to Augustine’s mission to Kent in the late 6th Century. The church = gold, so therefore it is not a surprise to see that gold became incredibly intertwined with the church and overall religious aspects of life. This would continue right up until the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th Century.
The wealth build up through religious artefacts etc continued up until the Vikings started raiding, raping, plundering and pillaging. The most notable of those raids occurred in Lindisfarne in the Northeast of England (red dot on the map below).
Gold use was becoming more frequent with diplomacy or indeed to pay the ever-increasing cost of the Danegeld, as was the case with Æthelred the Unready (r. 978–1016). This might have somewhat appeased the Vikings but left the finances of England in a state of disrepair. Even the end of the Anglo-Saxon era in 1066 (Battle of Hastings) would not change the immediate fortunes of England and gold.
Medieval England (1066–1485)
Gold remained scarce in the early Norman period. As mentioned in the Bronze & Iron Age segment, England did not have an abundance of gold and offered very little in comparison to other parts of Europe.
The Normans bought with them a silver-based economy from Normandy and the famous Domesday Book (1086) listed no significant gold mines in England. The Domesday Book itself was essentially a massive land and tax undertaking as it thoroughly documented the land, its holdings and its inhabitants.
Therefore, the role of gold throughout the Norman period was primarily ceremonial i.e. the Crown Jewels, the Divine Right of Kings etc. Gold was reserved for the lords, barons and royalty. Most of this gold came from the conquering of estates and the ‘repurposing’ of gold from places such as Cathedrals.
Trade with Europe started to grow again in the 12th & 13th centuries and with it bought in a new influx of gold. Italian merchants and the Hanseatic League were the main sources of trade.
Despite increased trade, Gold was still relatively scarce and this scarcity was exacerbated in times of crisis. 2 prominent examples of this were Richard I (r. 1189–1199) pawning gold treasures for his famous ransom in 1194 and King John (r. 1199–1216) extorting gold from barons et al in order to fund daft wars.
Henry III (r. 1216–1272) remains one of the most underrated kings of England and it was he that first instructed the minting of the very first gold coin of England. The gold penny (1257) was worth 20 silver pence. Unfortunately, this experiment was unsuccessful due to the relative high value of the coin and its limited minting.
The Hundred Years’ War (fun fact - it lasted 116 years) marked a turning point in terms of coinage and trade. Edward III (r. 1327–1377 and also very underrated) introduced a gold coin that was worth 6 shillings and 8 pence.
The noble, as it was called, was successful primarily due to the flourishing wool trade with Flanders. This in turn brought in a lot of gold bullion to the Royal Mint at the Tower of London.
Goldsmiths thrived as imported gold was refined into coins and jewellery. Edward III also melted down church gold in order to finance campaigns.
The Black Death disrupted gold flows in England (as it would have done in most of Europe) yet this flow recovered under Richard II (r. 1377–1399). Moving into the 15th Century and The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487) saw the London Mint raided in 1464 as well as the crown of Henry VI pawned on multiple occasions.
Even in these times of turmoil, gold held its allure and was often associated with royalty in one way, shape or form.
Tudor England: Gold & the New World (1485–1603)
1485 - 1509 witnessed the best fiscally responsible King that England has ever seen. Henry VII (1485 - 1509) kicked off the Tudor era by minting the first sovereign in 1489. This coin was valued at £1 and as stated on Wikipedia:
‘‘The name derives from the large size and majestic portrait of the monarch (the "sovereign"), with the obverse of the first sovereigns showing the king's full face, sitting on a throne, while the reverse shows the Royal Arms of England and a Tudor double rose’’.
Growing naval strength and power meant that trade with the continent of Europe continued to flourish. England’s wool and cloth exports brought in Flemish gold florins. The Goldsmiths’ Company of London helped to ensure purity of these imported coins.
At the same time, King Henry VII helped to stabilise the economy after The Wars of the Roses and continued to hoard gold in the Tower of London. By his death in 1509, he had amassed a reserve of £200,000, most of this in the form of jewellery and gold plate.
Keeping personal reservations aside, his son Henry VIII (r. 1509–1547 and he of six wives) had a profound impact on the course of gold in the Tudor period. He dramatically changed the landscape for a variety of reasons.
The ridiculous extravagance of Henry VIII, as showed in the 1520 meeting between himself and Francis I of France at the ‘Field of the Cloth of Gold’, cost almost £15,000 at the time and, historically speaking, did not achieve anything significant. It was partly funded by the plundering of gold plate.
In 1534, the Church of England renounced the authority of the Catholic Church. This was essentially created out of hatred to the pope for not allowing the annulment of marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.
This led to the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536–1541), which yielded a ridiculous amount of gold for the King as over 1,500 monasteries were forcibly plundered, thus surrendering all forms of gold including gold crossed, reliquaries, chalices, plate and more.
Historical estimates suggest this purge yielded approximately £1.3 million for the royal coffers. Using the Bank of England inflation calculator from 1540 to February 2025, this £1.3 million is the equivalent of just over £1 BILLION in today’s currency.
Henry VIII also introduced the ‘Great Debasement’ in 1544. This saw a reduction in the gold and silver content in coin and was mainly implemented in order to fund the lifestyle of the King and also to fund his lubricious wars and foreign policies.
Thankfully this policy was revoked in 1551 by his son Edward VI.
The Elizabethan era under Elizabeth I (r. 1558–1603) helped to turn gold into a tool of empire.
Elizabeth reissued the sovereign in 1560.
Good old-fashioned piracy helped to ensure that England saw her fair share of Spanish riches.
The most famous of these raids occurred in 1579 under Sir Francis Drake. The raid on the Cacafuego helped to gain 26 tonnes of gold and silver, thus boosting the coffers of the treasury.
Trade blossomed and in 1600 the East India Company opened trading in Asia. This meant being able to import more gold via places such as the straits of Malacca and often in the form of Mughal coins, which were then melted into sovereigns.
Under Thomas Gresham, the Elizabethan mint flourished and continue to refine bullion from privateers such as Sir Franics Drake, John Hawkins et al.
At the time of the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, England’s gold wealth was tied to ‘exploration and privateering’ and not to domestic production so to speak.
Stuart England: Gold in Crisis and Commerce (1603–1714)
A familiar royal theme continued throughout Stuart England. Periods of extravagance led to fiscal issues yet overall trade trumped turmoil.
Incredibly lucrative trade included Gold from the Virginia Company ventures as well as increasing trade from the Caribbean i.e. sugar profits purchased Spanish gold (sometimes plunder and pillaging helped too).
Although James I (r. 1603–1625) started to mint the Unite in 1604, this new coin could probably be explained by the £100,000 spent on Anne of Denmark’s coronation gold crown in 1603!
The Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) disrupted European gold flows and meant that English companies such as Goldsmith’s ended up lending gold to the crown at high rates of interest.
During any other time then England would have benefitted somehow from this, but the English Civil War (1642–1651) under Charles I (r. 1625–1649) turned any remaining gold into a war chest.
Usual practices ensued i.e. the melting of gold plate to create coin to fund war.
The English Civil War also saw both royalists and parliamentarians either spend or hoard their gold. The execution of Charles I on 30th January 1649 at Whitehall Palace and the subsequent Commonwealth austerity saw the halting of gold coinage production.
Charles II’s (r. 1660 - 1685) restoration in 1660 revived gold’s prominence. The guinea (named after said country in West Africa) was introduced in 1663 and was valued at 20 shillings. This would be later raised to 21 shillings in 1717.
Thankfully production of the guinea was not halted during The Great Plague of 1665-1666 and, more incredibly, during the Great Fire of London in 1666. The Royal Mint was somehow spared on both occasions.
Familiar tales ensured as gold faced strain due to war with France under James II during his 3-year reign between 1685 and 1688.
The Glorious Revolution in 1688 helped to restabilise gold it under William III and Mary II amid the Anglo Dutch Wars.
The Bank of England was created in 1694 and they held gold in reserve whilst issuing notes held against the gold i.e. the introduction of a form of gold backed currency system. This system was immediately tested during the Nine Years’ War.
Industrial & Georgian England (1714 - 1816)
Sir Isaac Newton (yes, that one) fixed the guinea at 21 shillings in 1717. In hindsight this was an overvaluation and resulted in the surge of the price of silver. It also resulted in Britain actually going onto a gold specie standard in 1717.
The South Sea Bubble in 1720 shocked the system but Newton’s reforms helped to tie England’s economy to gold from Brazil and India through trade. This helped to cement London’s financial rise throughout this period.
One of the coinage quirks in this period was the minting of the Quarter Guinea in the years 1718 and 1762 and both out of necessity due to rising silver prices at the time. In both cases, the Quarter Guinea proved extremely unpopular due to its small size (16mm diameter) and impracticality.
The middle to late 18th Century saw Britain engaged in a lot of war. These were mainly financed through gold acquired through trade/commerce and also the emergence of paper currency through national long term funded debt.
The Napoleonic Wars saw Britain come off of their gold standard in order to help finance them, yet curiously France remained on a bimetallic standard. Cambridge.org have produced a very good summary here.
The Golden Era (1816 - 1914)
The true Golden Era of Britain was covered in this recent article. It covers the period between 1816 - 1914)
The Golden Era - The British Empire & Sound Money between 1816 - 1914
Today’s post is going to dive into the history of Britain and specifically look at the Golden Era between 1816 - 1914. This was a time when the sun never set on the British Empire and, because of sound monetary policy, inflation was relatively non-existent.
Modern Era (1914 to present)
World War I decimated the finances of most of Europe. The United Kingdom went back to a gold standard in 1925, but this was short-lived and 1931 saw the final abandonment of the gold backed monetary system.
Gold turned from being related to sound money to more of a strategic asset. World War II (1939-1945) saw England’s gold holdings shipped off to Canada for safekeeping.
Of all crazy policies to have happened in the last 80-90 years, the selling of approximately half of the UK’s gold reserves between 1999 - 2002 (aka Browns Bottom) has to be viewed as the most stupid gold-based decision to have ever fiscally happen to the United Kingdom.
Roughly half of the holdings (395 tonnes, 12,700,000 troy ounces) were sold between 1999 - 2002 at a total price of $3.5 billion (about $275 an ounce). With gold circling $3,300 at the time of writing this article, it is safe to say that the United Kingdom would have been much better off fiscally by holding on to their reserves.
$3,300 x 12,700,000 = $41.91 BILLION (£31.66 BILLION using todays exchange rates).
Summary
The British Isles (in general) have had a long and intriguing history with gold. We have never been blessed with an abundance of natural gold on our shores and have thus relied on trade, plunder and force in order to obtain gold. It is just a shame that we could not look after our own gold properly!!
Gold. Silver. Metals & Markets. Generate wealth (both financial and freedom) through market analysis/information, expert podcasts & insights, educational writings & prudent Plan B information. Subscribe today!
Contrarian Capitalist PAID Subscribers get:
ALL Market Newsletters (Weekly Open, Weekly Wrap, Monthly Wrap) including charts, exclusive written & audio commentary
Access to personal stock picks & watchlists via the CC Club. Access to the paid subscriber only chat feature!
Exclusive audios/articles that aim to help you start generating true wealth (freedom & financial)
Contrarian Capitalist FOUNDING MEMBERS get:
Lifetime membership - pay ONCE and NEVER renews! ALL paid subscriber benefits in a one-off lifetime investment!
Thank you in advance for becoming a Paid Subscriber/Founding Member.
CC