Georgia Gold Rush Economic Analysis

While the social aspect of each population played a huge part in the success or failure of a community, the monies that changed hands for goods and services by both locals and wayward wanderers were directly related to the prosperity of a town. Successful mining ventures boosted the economy, but once the natural resources had been depleted, the thriving economy often accompanied gold seekers to their next destination. Immigrants who ventured to America for a chance at a better life often found themselves suffering a rude awakening upon arrival in California. The ebb and flow of the economy during the earlier gold rushes in the South, primarily Georgia and California, was largely dependent upon the population, the availability of resources,
The system, as described by David Williams, consisted of two barrels that were housed in the state capital. One barrel contained the names of every individual who had successfully signed up for the lottery. The other barrel contained the plots of land, but since there were far fewer plots of land than individuals, government officials padded the land barrel with blank tickets. When an individual’s name was called, they were required to pay a grant fee, or forfeit the land to the state (Williams, The Georgia Gold Rush: Twenty-Niners, Cherokees, and Gold Fever, 52). Clearly, this was a ploy by the state government to “earn something from nothing,” because the land that was included in the lottery was arguably not the state of Georgia’s to begin with. Still, despite the unsavory actions of the government officials, people flocked to Georgia in search of the opportunity to find their own wealth. Williams described “a rapid influx of miners and adventurers resulted in a dramatic increase in trade and commerce…brought wealth to those towns…” (Williams, The Georgia Gold Rush: Twenty-Niners, Cherokees, and Gold Fever, 57), which ultimately resulted in large boosts to the economy, both within towns that had already been established and communities that were hastily built to accommodate the gold
Mark Kanazawa stated that the “Chinese miners contributed significantly to state and local tax revenues” (Kanazawa, Immigration, Exclusion, and Taxation Anti-Chinese Legislation in Gold Rush California, 781). At this point, California was overflowing with immigrants and gold rushers alike, and the Chinese became the scapegoats for taxation and, ultimately, exclusion. This exclusion had the potential to directly impact the American economy, specifically by harming the trading relationship America had with China at that time. Furthermore, “many viewed Chinese miners as an important source of tax revenues vital to the financial stability of both the state and the counties in which they resided” (Kanazawa, Immigration, Exclusion, and Taxation Anti-Chinese Legislation in Gold Rush California, 788). When the state exploited Chinese immigrants as a way to bolster state funds, by way of taxation, the Chinese became the slaves of the West without the opportunity to live freely, just like African Americans in the