Between March and August, the Dutch central bank quietly moved 86 metric tons of gold — worth tens of billions of euros — from vaults in New York and Ottawa to London, reducing its North American holdings from a majority to just over a third of total reserves. The decision, framed by bank officials as a matter of resilience and tradability, speaks to something older and more elemental: the instinct of nations, in uncertain times, to draw their most tangible wealth closer to home. Gold has always been the asset of last resort precisely because it cannot be frozen, recalled, or dissolved by decr