Let's make a push for gold being the most important trade good in EU3

In my opinion, gold should certainly be the most important trade good in the game -- although the problem is that it's not really modeled as a trade good in the game, but rather a static income boost that causes inflation. Since its 'value in use' isn't really shifting, but rather its 'value in exchange', the value of Gold could perhaps be tied to the overall value of all the other commodities connected to the European market. The economic system in EU3 is quite extensive though limited, but would it be possible to set '(all trade units * their trade value * decimal value for appropriate gold value) / number of discovered gold units = Gold value' ? Probably not and it wouldn't accurately represent gold anyway.

A static 'mega value' as suggested in the opening post is, however, quite lacking. Nations were not more inclined to war over golds mines than industrial centers -- quite the opposite. Rather than augmenting the value of gold, I would suggest lowering their value through a few event scrips. For one thing, the discovery of the American mines resulted in the complete shut down of vertually all the European ones. In essence -- no more gold for Austria.

Here is a quote of interest by Adam Smith. Not always correct when it comes to economy, but a good depiction of thought in the relevant time period:

Adam Smith said:

Gold and silver, however, like every other commodity, vary in their value, are sometimes cheaper and sometimes dearer, sometimes of easier and sometimes of more difficult purchase. The quantity of labour which any particular quantity of them can purchase or command, or the quantity of other goods which it will exchange for, depends always upon the fertility or barrenness of the mines which happen to be known about the time when such exchanges are made. The discovery of the abundant mines of America reduced, in the sixteenth century, the value of gold and silver in Europe to about a third of what it had been before.*6 As it cost less labour to bring those metals from the mine to the market, so when they were brought thither*7 they could purchase or command less labour; and this revolution in their value, though perhaps the greatest, is by no means the only one of which history gives some account.

Click to expand...

A good question was to know how were the mines of the New World managed.

If we conclude they were public monopoly, or that at least the Government controlled how much gold was minted into currency - usually gold standard has the effect of controlling the prices of gold, since it's like a price guarantee - we can assume the supply of Gold to be controlled by the Government.