The price of gold did not move in 1907 — it was fixed at $20.67 — but the year reshaped monetary history all the same. A speculative collapse triggered the Panic of 1907, a cascade of bank runs that the US had no central bank to contain. Financier J.P. Morgan personally organized a rescue, locking bankers in his library until they agreed to backstop the system.
The panic exposed the fragility of a gold-standard system with no lender of last resort, and led directly to the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 — the institution whose money-printing would, decades later, become gold's central story.
Key events of 1907
- 1907-10-22
The Panic of 1907
A banking panic grips New York; J.P. Morgan organizes a private rescue of the financial system.