"Well! Let's talk about the mine!" Jean flips to the relevant pages in the second notebook. "It provides copper! That's a really good natural resource, melts at low enough temperatures for wood instead of coal, but the thing is, we're in a bubble! The mine feeds the mint and presumably copper products like pots and pans, but not for free. You need wood for the supports and to make the tools, which also need steel! Where's the steel coming from? I haven't heard about another mine or refinery, but I've got records of trading for it. Tools wear down! They break! Recycling can't be 100% efficient! Eventually either all the pickaxes and shovels go or the mine does, and all the miners are out of work - really specialized work that doesn't easily translate to other skills! And then it gets worse!"
Another few pages. "No new copper means no new Brass, instantly creating a deflationary economy that punishes buying because the demand for currency is higher than the supply! When people notice, they'll start hoarding money, which hits the merchants and their employees! And! Steel running out hits the farmers and fishers, who will need different tools and techniques! But we're still in a bubble! If fish aren't coming in from the sea, they run out too! No fish, and no fish products to make fertilizer and art like scrimshaw. Everyone switches to wood and stone, but wood takes hundreds of years to be useful for housing and construction, and decades to be good for bows, arrows, and knives! New growth can't keep up! Stone wears out too! If we can't pop the bubble, this place is done for inside of three generations! But popping it doesn't fix things by itself - if time is passing outside, competitors in the market have taken over Marrow Island's niche. Breaking back in will be, hahahaha, a bit of a bitch, so in short..."
Jean looks up. "It's missing a reason for the world to come back. We can fix the curse and everyone still dies. We need something to sell."
no subject
Another few pages. "No new copper means no new Brass, instantly creating a deflationary economy that punishes buying because the demand for currency is higher than the supply! When people notice, they'll start hoarding money, which hits the merchants and their employees! And! Steel running out hits the farmers and fishers, who will need different tools and techniques! But we're still in a bubble! If fish aren't coming in from the sea, they run out too! No fish, and no fish products to make fertilizer and art like scrimshaw. Everyone switches to wood and stone, but wood takes hundreds of years to be useful for housing and construction, and decades to be good for bows, arrows, and knives! New growth can't keep up! Stone wears out too! If we can't pop the bubble, this place is done for inside of three generations! But popping it doesn't fix things by itself - if time is passing outside, competitors in the market have taken over Marrow Island's niche. Breaking back in will be, hahahaha, a bit of a bitch, so in short..."
Jean looks up. "It's missing a reason for the world to come back. We can fix the curse and everyone still dies. We need something to sell."