During the Spanish Civil War, the Republican Spanish had their gold shipped to the Soviet Union for safekeeping. Stalin said, "The Spaniards will never see their gold again." Some off it was kept as payment for weapons like tanks and aeroplanes, but was any of that gold ever returned to Spain?
Don't think so, or at least not according to this. Apparently it was all spent. Talk about a convoluted story... Moscow Gold (Spain) - Wikipedia
"Superior Soviet" (like the Superior Soviet Man) accounting methods ensured that Stalin's position would be upheld then. I wonder if any of those Spanish bars were aboard the HMS Edinburgh when she sank.
The top 10 central banks with the largest gold reserves have remained mostly unchanged for the last few years. The United States holds the number one spot with over 8,000 tonnes of gold in its vaults – nearly as much as the next three countries combined. For six consecutive years the Russian Central Bank has been the largest purchaser of gold, increasing its holdings by 224 tonnes in 2017 and overtaking China to hold the fifth spot, according to the GFMS Gold Survey. How much Gold does Australia have in its vaults? 80 tonnes VS US 8100 tonnes... BUT Australia is estimated to have the world's largest gold reserves, with 9,500 tonnes or 17 per cent of the total world estimated gold reserves of 57,000 tonnes. (Still in the ground) Theres at least 5 million ounces still in the NT! Biggest Nugget found in Australia: The Welcome Stranger 78kg But a bunch have been found since that could be even bigger...
We really don't know how much gold Russia or China holds. The official numbers don't reflect it and both nations take pains to conceal it. China buys dore bars straight from the mines and refines it themselves. They also stopped reporting how much gold they mine annually. As for the United States, it may have leased our gold out when that practice became legal during Bubba Klington's presidency. It's probably why there hasn't been an audit of the gold reserves since the Eisenhower Administration. The trouble with leased gold is that you probably won't ever get it back. BTW, Russia announced it will start adding silver to its strategic stockpile (and platinum and palladium). China and India are probably the biggest buyers. For the Chinese it's EV & solar panels. For the Indians it's jewelry. Sorry for being so off topic. With the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement, the US dollar became the world's reserve currency. It made sense then. Our industry was the biggest, the nation unscarred by war and the US had over 26,000 tons of gold in its vaults. Part of the Bretton Woods Agreement was that the US promised not to print additional dollars that were not backed by gold held in storage ($32.50 an oz or something like that). Then after JFK was assassinated, and LBJ rose to the presidency, LBJ overspent (guns 'n butter or 'Nam and welfare) and the world figured out the US was overspending and began redeeming their dollars for gold. Finally in 1971 Nixon interrupted Bonanza (TV western show) and announced that he was "temporarily" closing the gold window. Nixon wanted a Bretton Woods II that would reprice gold but Germany free-floated the mark and other nations followed suit. With no Bretton Woods II, gold was never repegged to the dollar and the dollar (along with almost everyone else's currency) floated until it was tied to the petroleum in 1973. The 1973 petro-dollar agreement is dead since part of it was that Saudi Arabia would ONLY accept the dollar for oil trade. Saudi Arabia breached when dipped its toe and accepted the Kenyan shilling for oil (remember that when Saddam Hussein agreed to accept the Euro-dollar and Khadaffi said he wanted the gold dinar for his oil they both were attacked and sacked). Saudi now accepts Yuan (backed by the Chinese gold trade note redeemable at the Shanghai Gold Exchange). The weaponizing of the dollar (sanctions against Russia and the confiscation of Russian dollars) showed that the US was not an honest broker (run a crooked casino and no gambler patronizes your casino). That alarmed other nations that the US would confiscate wealth if they displeased the US. Inadvertantly that politically motivated move against Russia gave further impetus to BRICS which is expanding at the expense of the dollar for trade. Returning on topic, I heard the KMT in China sent a lot of its gold to the US and it was delivered to America by an American warship. The KMT (KuoMinTang) wanted to keep it out of Japanese hands. Never figured out the amount. Interesting read is Yamashita's Gold.
There's a tv programme of that name on Blaze tv (home of BS programmes about 'lost gold', 'alien conspiracies' etc). Basically a bunch of chancers are exploring the Philippines for gold supposedly hidden by the Japanese, on the basis that some other chancer supposedly found some in the '80s and instantly had it seized by Marcos, before dying 'mysteriously'. It's on the same level as the other channel offerings on 'Lost gold of the Templars', 'Alien disclosures' and 'The curse of Oak Island'. Same piss-artists on every show.
I don't have Blaze TV. Get the book via inter-library loan. It is very heavily footnoted. Because the Japanese couldn't transport the gold back to Japan (Japanese merchant ships got sunk frequently), they dug a lot of gold caches all over Luzon and like in those old mummy movvies, they killed the Filipino workers when the work was done. Some of the gold has been recovered too.
Sorry, it's a channel on Freeview in the UK. Originally American, but don't know what it's called over there.
