The gold standard used to be what made the world go around. People knew about gold and understood it. Works of art wrought in gold circulated in the ancient world as ways of representing wealth. Early paper money was little more than an easy representation for a... The gold standard used to be what made the world go around. People knew about gold and understood it. Works of art wrought in gold circulated in the ancient world as ways of representing wealth. Early paper money was little more than an easy representation for a...