Ranging from medieval times when gold was the only currency, to modern times until the currency was pegged against the gold standard, how good/bad was the economy?
Was there any inflation? If so, how did it occur without artificial manipulation of the economy.
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Just to address a misconception in what you said, gold was absolutely not the only currency or even the majority currency in the middle ages. It was far more common for commodities themselves to be used as currencies. Grain in particular works very well because it lasts a long time and is quite portable.
But like others have said, back in those days economies were far more likely to suffer crashes. Largely because precious metals are not as stable as people like to believe. And this was especially true right after the new world was discovered and we started importing a hell of a lot of gold and silver.
In fact, there was a period in which the price of silver was so unstable that European countries were backing their silver currency with a far more stable commodity: tulip bulbs. And then suddenly tulip bulbs collapsed in price an all of the silver currency did with them.
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