History of the Gold Standard - 1660 - 1819

The gold prices used in this table and chart are supplied by BullionDesk. Where the gold price is presented in currencies other than the US dollar, it is converted into the local currency unit using the foreign exchange rate at the time (or as close to as possible).
Currency	Mid price
USD	1,242.58
GBP	994.62
AUD	1,724.24
CAD	1,663.25
CHF	1,234.56
EUR	1,097.39
JPY	140,970
ZAR	17,835
INR	89,597
CNY	8,559
HKD	9,711

Covering the period from the mid-17th century through to the British Government's decision to allow the free exchange of gold, and presenting documents, primarily from the UK, that relate to the establishment of gold coinage as the centrepiece of the British financial system. The documents contained here address four themes: the legal position of gold coinage; popular views of gold; technologies of gold coinage; and early theoretical evaluations of the gold standard.

1660. May 21.

Resolution of the House of Commons to prohibit the exportation of money and bullion from England.

1660. Dec 11.
Excerpt from a report of HM Council of Trade advocating to the King the execution of provisions enabling the free exportation of gold and silver from England.

1662. Dec 20.
'An Act to prevent the Inconvenience arising by melting the Silver Coin of this Realm'.

1663. May 19.
Excerpt from the diary of Samuel Pepys, which gives an account of the processes involved in the manufacture of coinage at the Royal Mint using the new 'milled' method.

1663. Aug 1.
Excerpt from 'An Act for the Encouragement of Trade', introduced to Parliament by His Majesty's Council of Trade perhaps two years earlier but enacted only on this date.

1664.
Excerpt from a report on the state of the Royal Mint.

1666. Dec 20.
'An Act for Encourageing of Coynage'.

1667. Jun-Oct.
Excerpt from the diary of Samuel Pepys concerning his efforts to safeguard his gold...during the second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665-1667.

1672.
'An Act for continuing a former concerning Coynage'.

1674.
Statement issued by the English Government in response to reports about large amounts of bullion exported from England by the East India Company.

1676.
'The mystery of the new fashioned goldsmiths or bankers: their rise, growth, state, and decay, discovered in a merchant's letter to a country gent who desired to bind his son apprentice to a goldsmith'.

1690. Apr 9.
Note of a petition from London goldsmiths to the House of Commons, complaining that the exportation of large quantities of silver from England into France was placing an undue burden upon them.

1690. May 8.
House of Commons Committee Report issued in response to the petition of the previous month from the working goldsmiths of London concerning the exportation of large quantities of silver from England to France and the undue burden that this was placing upon working goldsmiths.

1690. Dec 6.
'Observations on the Bill against the Exportation of Gold and Silver, and melting down the coin of the realm', delivered at the Bar of the House of Lords by a group of prominent London merchants, led by James Houblon, MP, who authored the paper, and including, among others, his son Sir John Houblon, who later became the first Governor of the Bank of England.

1691. Dec 30.
Excerpt from the Parliamentary diary of Narcissus Luttrell on the debate in the House of Commons over a bill for discouraging the exportation of bullion.

1692.
Sir Dudley North's 'Discourse of Coyned Money' and 'Postscript', from the same author's Discourses upon Trade, which was published in 1692, though the title page shows a publication date of 1691.

1694. Apr 25.
Bank of England Charter.

1695. Jan 8.
Report to the House of Commons from the Committee appointed to consider proposals for stemming both the clipping of the silver coinage of England and the exportation of silver.

1695. Jul 3.
'Representation to the Lords Justices from the Treasury Lords on the price of guineas', reporting that the high price of guineas in England has encouraged the importation of large quantities of gold from abroad to the loss of the nation.

1695. Dec 10.
Resolutions put forward in the report of the Committee of the whole House, laying the foundation for the Great Recoinage.

1695.
A short paper on guineas written by John Locke at the request of Treasury Commissioner Sir William Trumbull in connection with the Treasury report of the 3rd of July 1695.

1696. Jan 17.
'An Act for Remedying the Ill State of the Coin of the Kingdom'.

1696. Feb 15.
Resolution put forward in the report of the Committee of the whole House, stating that no guinea should pass for more than 28 shillings.

1696. Feb 24.
'An Act for taking off the Obligation and Incouragement for Coining Guineas for a certaine time therein mentioned'.

1696. Apr 10.
'An Act to incourage the bringing Plate into the Mint to be Coined, and for the further Remedying the Ill State of the Coin of the Kingdom'.

1696. Oct 23.
'An Act for Importing and Coining Guineas and Half-guineas'.

1698. Sep 19.
Correspondence of Isaac Newton, Warden of the Mint, dated from Jermin Street in Westminster, to John Locke, concerning the weight and fineness of various coins.

1698. Sep 22.
Report of the Board of Trade, which included John Locke and John Pollexfen among its four members, to the House of Commons on the high price of guineas and the consequent flight of silver from England.

c.1700
Excerpts from Hopton Haynes' Brief memoire relating to the silver and gold coins of England, with an account of the corruption of the hammered moneys; and of the Reform of the Late Grand Coynage At the Tower and the five County Mints In the years 1696, 1697, 1698, and 1699.

1701. Jan 20.
Report of Isaac Newton, Master of the Mint, to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, concerning the high value of French and Spanish Pistoles in England.

1701. Sep 28.
Report of Isaac Newton to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, concerning edicts of the King of France relative to the gold and silver coinage of France.

1702. Jul 7.
Report of Isaac Newton to Sidney Godolphin, Lord High Treasurer of England, concerning the values of various foreign gold and silver coins.

1705.
Excerpt from John Law's famous tract Money and trade considered

1710. Dec 31.
Report of Sir Isaac Newton to the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, concerning the fineness of gold coins in relation to the trial plate used in the trial of the pyx of 21 August 1710.

1717. Sep 21.
Report of Sir Isaac Newton, Master of the Royal Mint, to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, on the price and relationship of gold to silver and the consequences for the coinage of the kingdom.

1717. Dec 22.
Royal proclamation of King George I forbidding the exchange of guineas for more than 21s. each and effectively putting England on a bimetallic standard.

1717. Dec 31.
Anonymous communication to Sir Isaac Newton in response to the publication, on the previous day, of Newton's report of the 21st of September to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury.

1718. Oct 20.
Memorandum containing Sir Isaac Newton's observations on the state of the gold and silver coins.

1720. Mar-Nov
Excerpts from the correspondence of William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath and MP from 1705 to 1742, to James Craggs, Secretary of State for Southern Affairs from 1717 to 1721, concerning the state of the gold coin in France.

1730.
Excerpts from John Conduitt's treatise, 'Observations upon the present state of our Gold and silver coins'.

1734.
Excerpt from Richard Cantillon's Essai sur la nature du commerce en général.

1735. various
Excerpts from John Atkins' account of his travels along the west coast of Africa, in the West Indies, and in Brazil in the early eighteenth century.

1752.
'On the Balance of Trade' by David Hume.

1792. Apr 2.
Coinage Act of 1792, United States.

1797. Feb 27.
Newspaper account of a Council decision to suspend cash payments by the Bank of England.

1797. Feb 28.
Newspaper account of a Message of the King, read before the House of Lords by the Lord Chancellor on the preceding day, suspending cash payments by the Bank of England.

1797. Feb 28
Newspaper account of the suspension of cash payments by the Bank of England.

1810. Jun 8.
Select Committee on High Price of Gold Bullion.

1811. Jul 9.
'A Bill, intituled, an act for making more effectual provision for preventing the current Gold coin of the Realm from being paid or accepted for a greater value than the current value of such coin; for preventing any Note or Notes of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England from being received for any smaller Sum than the Sum therein specified; and for staying proceedings upon any Distress by Tender of such Notes'.

1812. Mar 20.
'A Bill, to continue and amend an Act of the Session of Parliament, for making more effectual provision for preventing the current gold coin of the Realm from being paid or accepted for a greater value than the current value of such coin, for preventing any Note or Bill of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England from being received for any smaller Sum than the Sum therein specified, and for staying Proceedings upon any distress by tender of such Notes; and to extend the same to Ireland'.

1816. May 31.
'A Bill, to provide for the New Silver Coinage, and to regulate the Currency of the Gold and Silver coin of this Realm', which establishes 'the lawful Gold Coin of the Realm', the Sovereign, as the standard unit of currency and confirms the valuation of one standard ounce of gold (11/12 fine) at £.3.17.10½.

1819. Apr 5.
Secret Committee on the Expediency of resuming Cash Payments: 'First Report from the Secret Committee on the Expediency of the Bank resuming Cash Payments'.

1819. May 19.
Proposed resolutions on the Expediency of resuming Cash Payments: 'Proposed resolutions [on the Expediency of the Bank resuming Cash Payments]'.

1819. May 21.
Representation of the Bank of England on the Expediency of resuming Cash Payments.

Gold spot price USD 1,242.58 Last updated: 12 December 2018, 07:48

Mid price: USD/Oz

The rise of the Gold Standard - records from 1660-1819