a few days after Marshall’s discovery; and so the Gold Rush came before any meaningful government could be established. It was an unlikely intersection of anarchy and geology. Unlike anywhere else, the gold in California was easy to get and free for the taking.J.S. Holliday, author of “The World Rushed In”: “It’s free politically. It doesn’t belong to anybody. There is no sign that says keep out. There’s no government. There’s no wire. There’s no order. There’s none of the normal obstacles; political obstacles. The California Gold Rush is there, open, free.There is no military force here to impose any rules. There’s no taxes collected, no tax collectors. There’s no judicial system. There are no boundaries, there’s no rules. It’s there, it’s free. It was free—and it was plentiful. Soon there was too much money in California and too little of everything else. The lessons of supply and demand were often painful. A forty-niner who earned a dollar a day back home, could make twenty-five dollars in a day of mining— but that was often just enough to buy dinner.Historian Dennis Witcher:“Food was hard to come by in anything but hard tack—and stuff like jerky and dried beef. Fresh vegetables were very rare. Sutter had vast gardens but they were instantly raided.”It wasn’t just Sutter’s gardens that were raided—by the end of 1849, his grand empire had collapsed completely. Sutter did not have the entrepreneurial spirit of the new Californians and he didn’t have gold fever. He wanted an agricultural empire and refused to alter his vision. In the new California, Sutter was simply in the way. The 49ers literally trampled his crops and tore down his fort for the building materials. Dejected, disillusioned, he eventually left the state. The man who had the best opportunity to capitalize on the discovery of gol...
