Almost Nobody Got Rich Mining Gold — Here's Who Did

Almost Nobody Got Rich Mining Gold — Here's Who Did In May 1848 a storekeeper walked through San Francisco shouting that there was gold on the American River. He had already bought every pick, shovel and pan in the region. Two hundred thousand men came to California. Tens of millions of dollars of gold came out of the ground. Almost none of it stayed with the men who dug it. This is the story of where it actually went — to the people who owned the stores, the ships, the strongboxes and the right to issue a licence — and of the man whose land it was found on, who died with nothing. The Exchequer covers the financial history behind events everyone thinks they already understand.