Editing Gold standard (section)

===Effects of the 19th century gold rush===
[[File:NNC-US-1849-G$20-Liberty_Head_(Twenty_D.).jpg|thumb|right|Huge quantities of $20 [[double eagle]]s were minted as a result of the [[California gold rush]].]]
Up until 1850 only Britain and a few of its colonies were on the gold standard, with the majority of other countries being on the silver standard. France and the United States were two of the more notable countries on the [[bimetallism|bimetallic standard]]. France's actions in maintaining the [[French franc]] at either 4.5&nbsp;g fine silver or 0.29032&nbsp;g fine gold stabilized world gold–silver price ratios close to the French ratio of 15.5 in the first three quarters of the 19th century by offering to mint the cheaper metal in unlimited quantities – gold 20-franc coins whenever the ratio is below 15.5, and silver 5-franc coins whenever the ratio is above 15.5. The [[United States dollar]] was also bimetallic ''de jure'' until 1900, worth either 24.0566&nbsp;g fine silver, or 1.60377&nbsp;g fine gold (ratio 15.0); the latter revised to 1.50463&nbsp;g fine gold (ratio 15.99) from 1837 to 1934. The silver dollar was generally the cheaper currency before 1837, while the gold dollar was cheaper between 1837 and 1873.

The nearly coincidental [[California gold rush]] of 1849 and the [[Australian gold rushes]] of 1851 significantly increased world gold supplies and the minting of gold francs and dollars as the gold–silver ratio went below 15.5, pushing France and the United States into the gold standard with Great Britain during the 1850s. The benefits of the gold standard were first felt by this larger bloc of countries, with Britain and France being the world's leading financial and industrial powers of the 19th century while the United States was an emerging power.

By the time the gold–silver ratio reverted to 15.5 in the 1860s, this bloc of gold-utilizing countries grew further and provided momentum to an international gold standard before the end of the 19th century:
* Portugal and several British colonies commenced with the gold standard in the 1850s and 1860s
* France was joined by Belgium, Switzerland and Italy in a larger [[Latin Monetary Union]] based on both the gold and silver [[French franc]]s.
* Several [[international monetary conferences]] in the last third of the 19th century began to consider the merits of an international gold standard, albeit with concerns on its impact on the price of silver should several countries make the switch.<ref>{{cite book |title=The History of Currency, 1252–1894 |author=William Arthur Shaw |edition=3rd |publisher=Putnam |year=1896 |pages=275–294 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GrJCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA275}}</ref>