January 8, 2010
There was a time in ancient Egypt, during the days of the pharaohs, when gold was said to be as readily available as dirt. Once a visiting ruler from the Mali empire, which was located in what is now West Africa, came to Egypt and gave away gold in such large amounts that his generous visit made the price of gold in Egypt plummet for at leasta decade in the 14th century.
And if you read accounts of the ancient peoples of Caribbean islands like Quisqueya (now divided into Haiti and the Dominican Republic), people were able to go to certain spots and find gold within minutes. The gold-hungry explorers who descended on this island were amazed and could barely contain their excitement that gold was so readily available.
The interesting paradox about gold in the ancient world was that although it was plentiful and easy to obtain, it was also not necessarily worn by everyone. Depending on the culture, the working class may have had some access to gold, but more often than not, only the wealthy were able to wear and display gold whenever they wished. Someone of low social standing would not have been able to wear gold as freely as someone of a higher class.
And even if they worked on gold as artisans, laborers certainly were not able to sell gold to a gold buyer as they wished. If someone from the working class had gold, it was not likely to be their own and if they were caught attempting to sell gold that was not theirs, they would be serious consequences. No doubt many an ancient jewelry maker indulged in some daydreams about what they would do if the gold they were entrusted to work on was really their own.