C. Right! Clever businessmen could mine the gold right out of the pouches of the miners!

When they had something that was in short supply, they could make a lot of profit. Sam Brannan for example, had a store near Sutter's Fort. After gold was discovered, he quickly bought up all of the tin washpans in the area for only 20 cents each. Then, he waited for the big rush of people. People actually paid $8 to $16 dollars each for a tin washpan. During the spring and summer of 1848, his store made over $36,000!

In San Francisco during the gold rush, there was one merchant who had 496 packs of toothpicks. Originally, he planned to give them away to customers who came to his store. When he found out that toothpicks were in short supply, he charged 50 cents a pack for them. They sold so fast that he divided the packs into two, and people happily paid 50 cents for only 12 toothpicks!