The World Gold Council estimates that in the years 1840 to 1844, some 146 metric tons of gold were produced worldwide. Between 1855 and 1859, estimated gold production rose to 1,011 metric tons. This is an increase of 590 percent in 15 years. In terms of percentages, this is by far the greatest increase in gold production for which reasonable data on world gold production is available.
The reason for this amazing increase was the discovery of gold in California in 1848 and Australia in 1851. It was this mass of newly mined and refined gold that fueled the expansion of the world market — what Marx called a new 16th century — that, among other things, drowned the hopes of Marx and Engels for a revolution that would bring the working class to power in Europe during the 1850s. Instead, the massive expansion of the market caused by the gold discoveries led to a powerful surge in the development of industry on a capitalist basis.
A Critique of Crisis Theory 
Dear Mr. Williams, I’ve followed your blog with interest for years and I am pleased to see you continuing to develop your contributions to Marxist thought. I believe that the development of capitalism post-COVID has validated your theory that gold is and remains real money and that we remain on an unofficial de facto gold standard. Perhaps you will prefer to give Marx the credit as you are elaborating what Marx said in capital but what many have ignored but afaik Marx never observed a true fiat system other than in readings about 17th century China and contemporary Russia– the latter, I believe was not total and only lasted for a time. I have some questions regarding your theory, 1. you said that if a technique or discovery that allowed for a truly vast quantity of gold to be produced that gold would be demonetized, this was something that I had thought might be the outcome of say a giant gold meteor being mined (and one does exist, apparently) but I wasn’t sure whether you personally agreed. What might be the alternative then, Rhodium, perhaps? 2. I’ve been wondering for a while, what if a capitalist government were to read your blog and, with potential gold reserves permitting, run gold mining as a state-directed with the intention of producing conditions akin to the post-WWII boom to preserve the health of the global capitalist system? Would the locus of crisis move to another weak point of the system such as disproportionality, falling profit rate, crisis caused by fictitious capital and growing unsustainable debts, absolute overproduction of capital, or even a global labor shortage? 3. Your proposal for gold mining as the materialist foundation of the Kondratiev wave is fascinating, do you have any idea where we are in that process from the standpoint of global gold production in more recent times? 4. could Stalin’s proposal of a general crisis of capitalism be a cause “of wrong yesterday right today?” it really feels like capitalism has been in a kind of perpetual crisis since 08 but especially since 2020. Now that might just be something that someone who is an economic loser and follower of Marx like myself might be inclined to think but I was struck by Kliman’s contention that not enough capital was destroyed in 08 to clear the stage for a renewed boom and in 2020 this was even more the case. Since the policy of the imperialists since 2008 has been “the rich can never be allowed to lose, ever” I don’t see any signs of cleaning the gunk of fictitious capital and asset price overinflation happening and it does appear like the system will crack, likely from bad news in the finance and everything will come tumbling down regardless but with the added issue that the tool kit for recovering the economy through central bank policy and bailouts is truly exhausted. Maybe a new Great Depression, if capitalism survives it, will be the end of economic doldrums that appear to have plagued the economy since 08 and will set the stage for an even greater boom.
So where are we in all of this? Gold prices is all time high and the yield curve has been inverted for its longest time. Yet no recession in the horizon yet. Why is that? I have been watching this bourgeois economist channel, and one of his thesis is that the economy did not crashed yet because abnormal activity in truck sales:
https://youtu.be/9OQeqRMsxxs
and time to build new housing units(which increased over the last decades):
https://youtu.be/YiX9_7iJShQ
What you think?