Executive summary

• Gold is tangible and has a long history upon which to draw conclusions - Gold is a currency that has been used since Roman times. It cannot be manufactured and it does not perish. It is difficult to value, but we have data on gold prices going back over 800 years and so we can assess how its price has behaved in different circumstances. This enables us to draw a number of conclusions, some reliable, others less so.

• Gold is a poor hedge against inflation over meaningful time horizons - Over thousands of years, gold has maintained its purchasing power. However, over shorter per...