Part 3: Read the passages below and answer the questions by citing textual evidence. During the California Gold Rush of 1849, the world's supply of gold more than doubled, and hundreds of thousands of people
rushed to California to find their share. Boomtowns popped up to accommodate the visitors. A boomtown is a community that
receives sudden and explosive growth and development. San Francisco had around two-hundred residents in 1846, and about
36,000 in 1852. The few merchants in these boomtowns sold goods for more than ten times what they cost back East. For
example, a single pound of flour sold for as much as $17. Not everyone who joined in the California Gold Rush got rich, but
most of the boomtown merchants did.
1)
Why were boomtown merchants able to sell their products for so much money?
a) How do you know this?
2) How were the miners able to pay such steep prices for the goods offered by Boomtown merchants?
a) How do you know this?