The Golden Contradiction: A Marxist Theory of Gold : With Particular Reference to South Africa (Making of Modern Africa)

This is a work of political economy which explains how the traditional "constancy" of gold came to give way to a daily-fluctuating gold price. The fixed gold price is radically re-examined while the reverence of the gold standard system is challenged. The book looks at the gold producing labour, including the "Wild West" gold digger and the origins of apartheid in South Africa. California from 1849 to 1865 and South Africa from 1886 to 1907 are described against the backdrop of the entire world history of gold production to reveal a revolution in gold economics. Instead of the gold-mining companies separating black and white workers, Dr. Stemmet shows that such a system was already in place and that the companies then began to separate black gold-miners from black workers in general, thus creating the simplest form of apartheid.