Close to half of all the gold mined through history is jewellery, with India and China emerging over time as the world’s biggest consumers of crafted gold. In 2020, the two countries accounted for more than 50 per cent of the global demand for jewellery.
Historically, India has been the biggest gold consumer and China has topped the list only in recent years. By its very nature, the shiny and rare element has nurtured several contradictions, just as it does with the growth of civilisation and the ruin of societies.
In his study of gold’s relationship with the subcontinent, and especially Kerala and the Malabar Coast, George Varghese K points out that although India’s hunger for gold is legendary, its share in global production through history was a meagre 1 per cent. But the gold accumulated in this sink was more than 30,000 tonnes, almost one-sixth of the world total.
Citing historian Fernand Braudel, Varghese points out that the movement of this metal determined history. But all through that history, gold globally moved towards Asia, not away from it. Gold expert Peter Bernstein maintains that Asia is the sink of gold and once it entered this sink it never escaped.
Within Asia, India was the preferred point of accumulation, according to metallurgists specialising in gold studies. From the studies of experts such as Braudel, Frank Perlin and Andre Gunder Frank, it was clear that gold and silver moved in opposite directions within India; gold moved southwards while silver moved northwards. And in the peninsular south, it was the Malabar Coast that wrote for itself an inextricably close relationship with the metal. Much of that was rooted in the other precious commodity for centuries, black gold, or pepper.
Traders from all over followed the monsoons to the coast of Kerala to buy its pepper which the Romans, for instance, used in culinary and medicinal recipes, even warming wine with black pepper, and as a symbol of good taste. The Roman Empire traded gold with Indian rulers on the west coast in exchange of substantial amounts of spices, including pepper.
Rome’s epicurean leanings enriched subcontinental rulers with gold in lieu of spices, textiles and precious stones such as diamonds, pearls and emeralds. Trade between India and Persia, including both the Achaemenid and later Sasanian Empires, played a crucial role in the economic prosperity of both regions. This trade was facilitated by the overland routes that connected the subcontinent with Persia.
Excerpts from "Gold's Own Country," by PR Ramesh, published in OPEN Magazine on 25 April 2025. Read the full article here: https://openthemagazine.com/feature/golds-own-country-2/
