THE DISCOVERY OP GOLD JX CALIFORNIA CUTTER 



17 





through the usual territorial status, since its population was sufficient 

 for its entry into the union on equal terms with the other states. The 

 nature of prospecting made exploration of the state complete and rapid, 

 most portions being inspected in the hope of finding gold. The results of 

 the influx of forty-niners caused the State to go through a turbulent, and 

 oftentimes lawless, period of growing pains, but a period from which it 

 emerged the most important western state. 



The California gold rush stimulated strikes in all parts of the world. 

 Marshall 's discovery was the direct stimulus for the important New South 

 Wales find of 1851 and the resulting rush. In the general search for gold, 

 a strike was made on the Fraser River in western Canada. This rush 

 drew many fortune hunters. In 1859-60, the silver bonanza of the Corn- 

 stock Lode was made by prospectors seeking gold. Additional gold fields 

 were discovered in Colorado in 1859, and many of the miners were 

 Californians. These gold rushes and subsequent strikes drew men away 

 from California in considerable numbers, but began the process of filling 

 the gaps of settlement between the Middle and Far West. Thus the dis- 

 covery of gold not only hastened the development of one state, but also 

 that of the whole West, either directly or indirectly. 



The economic consequences and significance of the discovery of 

 gold are equally great but harder to determine. Increased production 

 in the L T nited States, followed by increased foreign production resulting 

 from the California gold rush, caused an increase of money in circula- 

 tion. By 1865 in California alone $750,000,000 in gold had been mined, 

 and this figure is considered a conservative estimate. In spite of the 

 heavy increase of circulating gold, the much-feared serious inflation, 

 which was predicted by economists, failed to materialize. True, in Cali- 

 fornia, at the source of gold and where commodities were scarce, initial 

 inflation was tremendous ; but world inflation as a result of the Cali- 

 fornia gold rush, and its successors, was slight. Estimates of inflation 

 range from 5 percent to 15 percent. This low figure is explained by an 

 existing world scarcity of money caused in part by increasing world 

 population. 



Other important results of the gold rush were that it opened the 

 era of modern mining ; hastened the colonization of the West and the 

 suppression and partial elimination of the Indian ; accelerated the expan- 

 sion of the agricultural frontier by the need for a food supply in the 



gold area ; and speeded the linking of the East and West. The California 

 rush has the distinction of being the first modern international gold 

 rush, since all previous gold rushes in modern times were exclusive, 

 under the theory of mercantilism. Since subsequent rushes were, for the 

 most part, international in character, a fresh distribution of population 

 was produced not only in the United States but also in many portions 

 of the world. This redistribution of population with its resulting prob- 

 lems together with the general increase of money put into circulation, 

 is the primary significance to the world of Marshall's discovery. 



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