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The entire world was on the gold standard in the 16th and 17th centuries.
One of the reasons for the golden age of piracy was the massive devaluation of gold thanks to Spain massively increasing the supply of available gold in Europe because they were moving it from the new world.
It's a great example of how even gold can have inflation.
It seems unlikely that we're going to find a massive enough amount of gold to cause it to devalue like when Spain toppled all those kingdoms in the new world, but Elon is still working on super heavy launchers.
Who knows what's in the asteroids?
Many have pipe dreams of solid gold asteroids. That said, a lot of people who are not googly eyed optimists believe that asteroid mining may be a big thing in the future. Costs will be high though so it may not de-value precious metals too quickly.
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That super productive mine in South Africa that's generated 22% of all the gold ever mined appears to be from a meteor strike there.
DeleteBut it wasn't a gold asteroid, it just disrupted the crust so much that a lot of gold got moved up to where we could access it.
Which makes one speculate that if you could disrupt things enough a LOT of gold would become accessible...
Footfall mining, how can I help you?
Nukes?
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Another reason for the outbreak of piracy was that a lot of countries' ports would allow pirates to use them. Pirates can't exist without safe ports. At one time Boston was a major pirate port. Arrr!
ReplyDeleteThat's from the SECOND Golden Age of Piracy. The reasons there was England and the East Indian Company's extortionate rates on things being brought into the colonies.
DeletePirates "steal" the cargo. The ship owner who was "forced" to give up his cargo makes an insurance claim. Brokers from Boston to Jamaica launder the origin of the cargoes...
Everybody wins!
Oh, except England and the East India Company... But to Hell with them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_Basin: "the nickel capital of the world" is also an impact site. With apologies for posting first time as "Anonymous"
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