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I have been looking into this, and one of the few commodities that has value at scale is Nickel, there is a large demand for it and the prices have been general

I have been looking into this, and one of the few commodities that has value at scale is Nickel, there is a large demand for it and the prices have been generally high. The Spanish brought back gold and silver from the New World, and crashed the markets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution Mansa Musa of Mali splashed gold on his trip to Mecca in the 1300s and caused economies to falter for several years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_I_of_Mali https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_I_of_Mali There would seem to be more danger to the economy by being flooded with rare metals than from an actual meteorite impact.

theptip 8y ago
> There would seem to be more danger to the economy by being flooded with rare metals I think that this case is not directly comparable to the price revolution; in the cases you've linked, Gold==Money, and so by bringing back gold the Spanish massively increased the money supply (from the first article, "Prices rose on average roughly sixfold over 150 years. This level of inflation amounts to 1–1.5% per year, a relatively low inflation rate for modern-day standards, but rather high given the monetary policy in place in the 16th century"). In the case we're discussing, Metal!=Money. The more metal you bring back, the lower the price falls, until it reaches a new equilibrium where it's no longer economical at the margin to bring back more. This would significantly affect certain markets (i.e. mining, industrial processes that consume these metals), but it's not the same thing as creating money; you can't spend nickel, you need to find someone who will buy it from you in order to turn it into money.
- zeristor 8y ago
  That was the point I was trying to make, seemingly not very well. That Nickel is a metal commodity that would probably be able to soak up much of the production. I need to work out how to deal with too many ideas hitting me at once.

theptip 8y ago

> There would seem to be more danger to the economy by being flooded with rare metals I think that this case is not directly comparable to the price revolution; in the cases you've linked, Gold==Money, and so by bringing back gold the Spanish massively increased the money supply (from the first article, "Prices rose on average roughly sixfold over 150 years. This level of inflation amounts to 1–1.5% per year, a relatively low inflation rate for modern-day standards, but rather high given the monetary policy in place in the 16th century"). In the case we're discussing, Metal!=Money. The more metal you bring back, the lower the price falls, until it reaches a new equilibrium where it's no longer economical at the margin to bring back more. This would significantly affect certain markets (i.e. mining, industrial processes that consume these metals), but it's not the same thing as creating money; you can't spend nickel, you need to find someone who will buy it from you in order to turn it into money.

zeristor 8y ago
That was the point I was trying to make, seemingly not very well. That Nickel is a metal commodity that would probably be able to soak up much of the production. I need to work out how to deal with too many ideas hitting me at once.