The Search for Minerals in the Nineteenth Century

The nineteenth century economy, much as or economy to day is, is a mineral economy. And this is fundamentally a story about white settler colonialism. The search for gold backs the stability of the pound and so supports britain's dominance of the global economy. A lot of the coal the gold coming from californi and other places go straight into the coffers of the bank of england. So in the battle for sources and between those empires, and gold starts to take ad centre stage.