A Nugget of Information

I see that the concerns in recent days over a Global Pandemic of the Coronavirus have served to ramp up demand for and drive up the price of Gold.

This precious metal has such a hold over humankind bringing out the very worst in our behaviour in order to obtain it and yet in the hands of the Philanthropic and Benevolent amongst us it has the power to do so much good.

It's value is of course in its natural scarcity or otherwise a difficulty in its discovery and extraction from Mother Earth.

In a few locations it can be found scattered about and relatively easily gathered.

This was the situation in the Central Valley area of California in the Spring of 1848. The Gold Rush and hysteria surrounding it can be put down to the actions of just one local resident, a Sam Brannan.

After quite an entrepreneurial start to his life as well as prominence in his Mormon faith the enterprising Mr Brannan (1819 -1889) was to be found in that year running a General Store in Sutters Fort, now part of the City of Sacremento.

He had been able to monopolise not only the supply and sale of the essential items of equipment for those seeking to find their fortunes in Gold but had also craftily bought up or optioned large tracts of the land on which prospecting had the best opportunities to find the bright yellow treasure.

Many of the first wave of prospectors who came to dig the soil or pan the rivers only had Brannan as the outlet for picks, shovels, pans and all of the other required paraphenalia not to mention basic goods for sustenance and survival in what could be a harsh and unforgiving environment.

These were not wealthy or privileged individuals but more a collection of those who were desperate and down on their heels who could only graft and hope for that big discovery of a large nugget or untapped seam of gold.

Brannan was quite amenable to being paid for his stock and supplies in flakes or fragments of gold that had been the result of the extreme labour and hardship of others. Slowly and surely he accumulated a nice collection of the stuff and that gave him his most genius idea to date.

In an act of shameless fake news and self publicity Brannan took his pieces of gold to San Francisco and ran through its streets screaming aloud that there was gold to be had in them there hills or using words to that effect.

Where before the prospecting may have been a bit of a minority occupation the actions of Brannan really caught the imagination of the population and before long some 75% of the male population of California had descended on the Central Valley area in a bid to find their fortunes.

Surprise, Surprise Brannan happened to have the only General Store for miles around to cater for the mass rush and he duly cornered the market and fleeced the tens and hundreds of thousands of new prospectors and their families of their hard earned cash.

It was only a matter of months before Brannan assumed the position of one of the first millionaires in the area.

Unfortunately circumstances later on in his life conspired against him and he died in poverty and relative anonymity. His role in the 1848 Gold Rush is however remembered in the naming of streets and institutions on his home patch.