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Integrating The Historiography Of The Nineteenth‐Century Gold Rushes

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  • Keir Reeves
  • Lionel Frost
  • Charles Fahey

Abstract

In the century preceding World War I, the world experienced a series of gold rushes. The wealth derived from these was distributed widely because of reduced migration costs and low barriers to entry. While gold mining itself was generally unprofitable for diggers and mine owners, the increase in the world's gold supply stimulated global trade and investment. In this introductory article we integrate the histories of migration, trade, colonisation, and environmental history to identify endogenous factors that increased the world's gold supply and generated sustained economic growth in the regions that were affected by gold rushes.

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  • Keir Reeves & Lionel Frost & Charles Fahey, 2010. "Integrating The Historiography Of The Nineteenth‐Century Gold Rushes," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 50(2), pages 111-128, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ozechr:v:50:y:2010:i:2:p:111-128
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8446.2010.00296.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. James Wickham, 2011. "After the party's over: The Irish employment model and the paradoxes of non-learning," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp367, IIIS.
    2. Warwick Frost, 2013. "The Environmental Impacts of the Victorian Gold Rushes: Miners' Accounts during the First Five Years," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(1), pages 72-90, March.

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