[CWuestefeld]

Wouldn't flooding the market with that much gold...crash it?

Well, presumably only a single party is going to recover that gold. If they dumped the whole load onto the market, it would crash. But if they release it slowly, then a greater supply from each batch would cause "inflation", so that the price they could get from the next batch would be lower. But they could still derive significant wealth before trailed off.

[darnton]

Seville in the 16th century is the best example of what might happen. Spain got hold of the equivalent of a gold-filled asteroid - South America. All the gold and silver came in through the port at Seville, which became very rich, and inflation slowly radiated out from there to the rest of Europe.

[rwmj]

Presumably people would start using gold for all sorts of other things -- eg. replacing copper in wires -- so the market would also expand.