Word: hoards
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Thus Peter Martyr, a Habsburg court chronicler and diplomat, greeted the Old World's first exaction upon the New: a stupendous hoard of ornaments, masks and ritual objects cast and hammered from teocuitlatl, "the gods' excrement"-as the Aztecs called gold-which Montezuma had given to the insatiable Cortes. It was shown in Europe in 1519, and nothing from it survives today. Like nearly all the gold artifacts that Spain dragged from the New World, it was melted down for bullion...
...does in a year." The biggest silver speculator is Dallas Centimillionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt, who has used his petro-wealth to buy millions of dollars worth of future contracts for silver. Unlike most commodities gamblers, Hunt has accepted delivery on some of the metal, which he apparently intends to hoard until the price goes higher...
...Some 6,000,000 bales of U.S. cotton, no less than 45% of this year's crop, will be sent abroad. The Japanese have bought about 1,800,000 bales, 2½ times their normal purchase. The U.S. Government no longer permits the Japanese to convert their huge hoard of dollars into gold, and so they are moving their money instead into such commodities as soybeans, wheat, shrimp-and cotton. In addition, China, hit by a bad crop, is buying unexpectedly large amounts of American cotton-700,000 bales this year...
...local property tax also fuels speculation. Since vacant land is usually taxed at lower rates than developed plots, owners have an incentive to hoard property rather than turn it to productive use. This artificially restricts the land supply and drives up prices. A less direct effect of the property tax is perhaps even more important. Since almost every locality in the country depends on the property tax for the bulk of its revenues, local officials are generally hungry for development. Shrewd developers can play off one town against another for tax and zoning concessions...
...seems that a group of men learned of a hoard of hidden gold. The cache was old Aztec gold, they insisted, 60% pure. Some of it was in the form of artifacts, the rest in gleaming gold bars. What is more, there were 100 tons of it in all. At the current rate of $120 per oz., their startling find would be worth nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. Trouble was, private individuals are not permitted to deal in gold without a license. The gold was buried on a military reservation in New Mexico, and the men (there...