Well, you could exchange it for gold, although gold isn't necessarily useful. Ask Spain what happened when they focused on getting precious metals at the expens

Well, you could exchange it for gold, although gold isn't necessarily useful. Ask Spain what happened when they focused on getting precious metals at the expense of real non-monetary wealth in the economy (like cork trees). Answer: Inflation, economic collapse. (If someone could either provide a citation or call me out on my BS, that would be nice; I could be full of shit here.)