I think the gold standard was just a society-wide consensus that evolved.

Based on The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous, the countries that were mostly on a silver standard instead of gold suffered greatly, in the sense that their wealth was purchased cheap, by foreigners with the "harder" money - gold.

The history of money section in The Bitcoin Standard was a revelation to me. I love history and read a lot, and had never encountered that angle. And it made so much sense.