Editing California gold rush (section)

===World-wide economic stimulation===
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin-left:25px; width:28%; font-size:90%; border:1px solid darkgrey;"
|+[[Chilean wheat cycle|Chilean wheat exports to California]] from 1848 to 1854 (in [[Hundredweight|qqm]])<ref name=villalobos>{{in lang|es}} [[Sergio Villalobos|Villalobos, Sergio]]; [[Osvaldo Silva|Silva, Osvaldo]]; Silva, Fernando and Estelle, Patricio. 1974. ''Historia De Chile''. [[Editorial Universitaria]], Chile. pp 481–485.</ref>
|-
| valign="top"|Year
| style="vertical-align:top; text-align:center;"|Grains
| style="vertical-align:top; text-align:center;"|Flour
|-
| valign="top"|1848
| style="text-align:right; vertical-align:top;"| 3000
| style="text-align:right; vertical-align:top;"| n/a
|-
| valign="top"|1849
| style="text-align:right; vertical-align:top;"| 87,000
| style="text-align:right; vertical-align:top;"| 69,000
|-
| valign="top"|1850
| style="text-align:right; vertical-align:top;"| 277,000
| style="text-align:right; vertical-align:top;"| 221,000
|-
| valign="top"|1854
| style="text-align:right; vertical-align:top;"|63,000
| style="text-align:right; vertical-align:top;"|50,000
|}

The gold rush stimulated economies around the world as well. Farmers [[Chilean wheat cycle|in Chile]], Australia, and Hawaii found a huge new market for their food; British manufactured goods were in high demand; clothing and even prefabricated houses arrived from China.<ref name=RawlsWorld>{{harvb|Rawls|Orsi|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/goldenstateminin0000unse/page/286 286]}}</ref> The return of large amounts of California gold to pay for these goods raised prices and stimulated investment and the creation of jobs around the world.<ref name=RawlsStim>{{harvb|Rawls|Orsi|1999|pp=[https://archive.org/details/goldenstateminin0000unse/page/287 287–289]}}</ref> Australian prospector [[Edward Hargraves]], noting similarities between the geography of California and his home country, returned to Australia to discover gold and spark the [[Australian gold rushes]].<ref>Younger, R. M. 'Wondrous Gold' in ''Australia and the Australians: A New Concise History'', Rigby, Sydney, 1970</ref> Preceding the gold rush, the United States was on a [[Gold standard#Bimetallic standard|bi-metallic standard]], but the sudden increase in physical gold supply increased the relative value of physical silver and drove silver money from circulation. The increase in gold supply also created a monetary supply [[Shock (economics)|shock]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2015/08/crisis-chronicles-the-california-gold-rush-and-the-gold-standard.html |title=Crisis Chronicles–The California Gold Rush and the Gold Standard |last1=Narron |first1=James |last2=Morgan |first2=Don |date=August 7, 2015 |website=New York Fed |series=Liberty Street Economics |publisher=Federal Reserve Bank of New York |location=New York |access-date=August 8, 2015 |quote=The gold rush constituted a positive monetary supply shock because the United States was on the gold standard at the time. The nation had switched from a bimetallic (gold and silver) standard to a de facto gold standard in 1834. Under the latter, the U.S. government stood ready to buy gold for $20.67 per ounce, a parity that prevailed until 1933. That commitment anchored prices, but the large gold discovery functioned like a monetary easing by a central bank, with more gold chasing the same amount of goods and services. The increase in spending ultimately led to higher prices because nothing real had changed except the availability of a shiny yellow metal. |archive-date=August 9, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150809003039/http://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2015/08/crisis-chronicles-the-california-gold-rush-and-the-gold-standard.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Within a few years after the end of the gold rush, in 1863, the groundbreaking ceremony for the western leg of the [[First transcontinental railroad]] was held in Sacramento. The line's completion, some six years later, financed in part with Gold Rush money,<ref name=RawlsRR>{{harvb|Rawls|Orsi|1999|pp=[https://archive.org/details/goldenstateminin0000unse/page/278 278–279]}}</ref> united California with the central and eastern United States. Travel that had taken weeks or even months could now be accomplished in days.<ref name=RawlsandBean>Historians James Rawls and Walton Bean have postulated that were it not for the discovery of gold, [[Oregon]] might have been granted statehood ahead of California, and therefore the first "Pacific Railroad might have been built to that state." ''See'' Rawls, James, J., and Walton Bean (2003), p. 112.</ref>