[discostu]

Here's another goody on the CA gold rush
http://www.calliope.org/gold/gold2.html

Here's my favorite bit:
* Seventy-five prefabricated iron houses shipped from China - along with Chinese carpenters. Cheaper than using local materials and labor.
* Miners' soiled underwear departing by shiploads for the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), where it was cheaper to get it laundered.
* An instant 4,000% profit which Taylor himself made, selling the old newspapers he had used to cushion his belongings on the trip.
* Real estate lots bought up by speculators a year ago at sixteen dollars - now worth $15,000.

[#3Fan]

Here's another goody on the CA gold rush http://www.calliope.org/gold/gold2.html

I saw no mention that a shipload of gold couldn't pay a sailor's salery on that site either.

Here's my favorite bit: * Seventy-five prefabricated iron houses shipped from China - along with Chinese carpenters. Cheaper than using local materials and labor. * Miners' soiled underwear departing by shiploads for the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), where it was cheaper to get it laundered. * An instant 4,000% profit which Taylor himself made, selling the old newspapers he had used to cushion his belongings on the trip. * Real estate lots bought up by speculators a year ago at sixteen dollars - now worth $15,000.

San Fransisco was a town of 15000 people, a small town by today's standards. Show me where there was hyperinflation of the gold price for a significant population.