I am a nobleman in England

Since Britain defeated the Dutch in the 17th century, London replaced Amsterdam and became the world's largest gold market.

Even though the British economy was gradually overtaken by the United States and others more than 200 years later, for the next more than a century, London still stubbornly maintained the crown of the world's largest gold market, guarding the last afterglow of "the sun never sets".

However, now this afterglow may have disappeared, and the crown of the largest gold market will be taken away by New York.

The London gold market, its gold trading is mainly completed through market makers led by the five major gold merchants.Unlike the exchange model represented by the US gold market, gold trading on the London Stock Exchange is mainly through centralized matching.

The market maker model is that each market maker quotes the buying price and selling price according to their respective strengths and operating conditions. The transaction is more flexible. The gold purity, weight, and delivery location can all be selected by the customer.

Since the London gold market implements over-the-counter transactions, the specific transaction volume has not been accurately counted, and it can only be roughly estimated through monthly clearing data.

And the trading volume of the London gold trading market has been claimed to be higher than the clearing data, advertised that it is the world's largest gold market.

However, during the financial crisis, with the increasing requirements for transparency in the London gold market, more data outlines the true scale of this market, and traders find that this spot gold market is far from being as big as they thought.

According to the current gold price, there are approximately 30 million ounces of gold traded in London every day, or nearly 940 tons.

In view of the fact that the total amount of gold produced by mines in the world each year is about 3,000 tons, it means that the average daily gold trading volume in London is close to one-third of the annual output.

Although this number is not low, in contrast, the daily trading volume of gold futures in New York is more than half of the global annual production, which is equivalent to at least 450 tons more trading volume per day than in London.

Of course, even if it is overtaken by New York, the importance of the London gold market has not diminished.

After all, according to the data, 63% of gold transactions in the London market are used for spot transactions, 31% are used for swaps or forward transactions, and the remaining 6% are used for options and leasing businesses. .

This means that the London gold market is still playing a pivotal role in physical gold trading.

In contrast, although the New York market is larger, it is dominated by derivatives transactions, and physical delivery is negligible.

From the perspective of the impact on physical gold, the London gold market may not be as large as previously expected, but it is as important as it has always been believed.

At present, the four major pricing gold banks in the London gold market are Rothschild International Investment Bank, Scotiabank, Deutsche Bank, and HSBC, while Credit Suisse First Boston Bank withdrew from the London gold market in 2004. .

London gold, in short, is a narrow term for the 99.5% pure 400-ounce gold bricks stored in the underground vault of the City of London. The broad London gold refers to all the spot gold traded.

35 million pounds, according to the current exchange rate, one pound to 1.633 US dollars, 57155,000 US dollars, according to the current gold price of 986 US ounces, a total of 57,900 ounces can be purchased, a total of 57.09 million US dollars.

Looking at the account from 35 million pounds to 60,000 US dollars, Arthur's mood is really indescribable.

In London gold trading, investors do not need to withdraw physical gold, which saves the steps of transportation, storage, inspection, and identification of gold, and the difference between the buying price and the selling price is smaller than the difference between physical gold buying and selling.In addition, some companies do not charge customers any commissions and handling fees, further reducing investors' investment costs.

It took less than ten minutes for the genuine British pound to be replaced by a pile of vouchers in the document bag in his hand. In addition to feeling a little light in the document bag in his hand, Arthur felt a little heavy in his heart.

Without seeing the physical gold, Arthur always felt empty in his heart, so he wanted to go to the bank’s underground vault. However, the bank naturally couldn’t agree to this kind of request, just facing Arthur’s identity. The big customers, they didn't dare to offend, so they had to ask the bank's treasury manager to explain to Arthur in person.

“Only a small amount of gold is stored here. Our bank’s gold reserve warehouse is the third largest gold reserve warehouse in the world besides the Bank of England and Chase. The gold warehouse has always been private and the confidentiality work has been done very well. So far no one knows where it is, hehe, the outside world is even suspicious of its existence.

Your gold is safe there, so you can rest assured......"

The bank's treasury manager put a black suitcase on the table while smiling, while explaining to Arthur.

Under Arthur's curious gaze, the other party opened the black leather suitcase, which contained a document bag, two blue velvet bags with bank emblems, and two white gloves.

The bank manager who kept smiling first opened the file bag, then respectfully handed the stack of photos inside to Arthur, and explained: “This is a photo of our underground vault. You can see that there are 80 pieces on each wooden shelf. One gold brick, 12.5 kilograms each, that is to say, one ton of gold on each wooden shelf.

This photo is Melin Stan Lee, spokesperson for the World Gold Council..."

Arthur looked at the pictures of the vault in his hand. The entire underground vault was like an underground parking lot. The wooden cuboid shelves were stacked with yellow gold bricks, neatly stacked, and the scale was shocking. .

"At current prices, gold worth 18 billion U.S. dollars is stored here. I believe these records can prove that our bank's gold warehouse in the UK really exists..." The bank's vault manager also laughed at himself.

Arthur could only agree with shaking his head and laughing, then put down the photo and said: "I trust your bank, otherwise I would not choose your bank to buy physical gold."

"Thank you for your trust." The bank manager leaned slightly and said with a professional smile, then handed Arthur a pair of white gloves with both hands, and he picked up one and put it on himself.

He took a velvet bag with some effort from the suitcase, unfastened the knot, and took out a gold brick inside. Arthur looked at the gold brick he was holding in his hands, his eyes lit up suddenly and pressed down. Little excitement in my heart.

I have to say that gold is really a good thing. Even though Arthur, who is worth tens of millions, when he sees the real gold bricks, he still has an urge to hold it in his hand and take a closer look.

The bank vault manager held the gold bricks in his hands and handed it to Arthur, who was looking fiery. He smiled and said, “These gold bricks are all printed with a serial number and a processor’s emblem. The earliest meaning of the word hallmark in English is gold. This kind of emblem on the brick.

Through the number of each gold brick, the gold brick can be registered under the owner's name. This is called allocated. If this kind of gold brick is to be traded, you must find the gold brick with that number in the basement for delivery. Very inconvenient..."

Speaking of the other party, he opened another velvet bag, took out another gold brick from it, and handed it to Arthur to introduce: “That’s why there is this kind of gold brick that can be traded in the market. Registered gold bricks, this kind of gold bricks do not need to be checked, and the number of blocks can be delivered."

Arthur compares the difference between the two gold bricks in his hands, and at the same time, his heart beats faster. There is no way, gold, a metal, is so obsessed.

Gold is "the sun that can be touched." In Latin, gold is "the shining dusk."No matter who they are, they like to decorate themselves with gold and decorate their lives. No one in the world is indifferent to gold, not obsessed with it, or admiring it.

Gold has become a means for people to show their dignity and show off their wealth.Rich and powerful people made gold into daily necessities, and some even made gold into weapons.

Seeing the two gold bricks in his hand, Arthur was entangled. He had the urge to exchange a few gold bricks and take them home to have fun. However, reason quickly suppressed this unreliable urge.

After all, the storage, inspection, and identification of gold is really troublesome, especially for keeping it at home, which is definitely a big trouble.Rather than being careful all day long and worrying about safety issues, keeping it in the bank is undoubtedly the most correct choice.

Retracting, Arthur handed the two gold bricks indifferently to the bank vault manager and said, "Thank you."