Gold as a material and gold as a value becomes a truly universal equivalent in the early modern world as global economies begin to emerge after 1492. The essays in Global Gold present both the aesthetic and economic conditions that immediately precede the emergence of this global commerce as well as the immediate and various consequences of those interactions. Through interdisciplinary essays by scholars of European, American, African, and Asian history and art history, the differences and commonalities of gold’s monetary, economic, and aesthetic roles are explored within the crucible of a unique historical period of transition, conquest, and the exploitation of natural and human resources.