Quote:
Originally Posted by Grimace
I think some of you guys are forgetting how long gold, silver and gemstones have had value. Long before there were computers or established, stable currency there were gold, silver and gemstones. They have intrinsic value because people like shiny metals and pretty rocks.
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You are right about that but this doesn't mean that it had any real value as an exchange product. What you describe is mainly true for small elites.
Gold and precious stones were displayed by rulers but in daily life it was very seldom used (Japan is about the few exceptions). It wasn't used in Europe for regular currencies, it wasn't used in China, it wasn't used in Africa...
The reason for that is not a problem of value but of it not being available in quantity. That would be the case again with T2K. The Markgraf of Silesia might value gold but the regular trader might not have any use for it. In addition, if a group controls a fair quantity of Gold, it might not be able to trade it but it will surely be targetted by everyone else.
Everyone has the image of Spanish ships coming back from South America full of Gold. However, this never occured for real and Gold was only marginal. The Galleons were coming back full of other more valuable goods: Silver, Chocolate...
Later the most valuable good was Rubber grown in the Manaus area. Steeling and exporting Rubber plant was punished by death penalty but despite that, a British finally stole several plants and brought them back to England and, then, India.
Gold gained a real trade value only in the late 19th century when governments became capable of assembling substantial reserve to back their paper currencies (that ended in 1950).
In T2K, a bag of potatoes or a box full of bullets might be much more valuable.