By Stephen Cheng
| August 3, 2002
The one economic resource that any enterprising military commander would take advantage of. Tiberium. Discovered at the River Tiber in Italy (hence the name Tiberium), this phenomenon spread all over the world and was found to contain valuable minerals. An ideal cash crop. The stuff simply grows on it own. All one has to do is to gain the necessary capital to build refineries and harvesters. Other than that, the mining operation is all set. Besides, aside from establishing a collection facility and procuring the needed vehicles, operating expenses are quite low. No doubt Tiberium made its way into the global marketplace as both an ideal commodity and currency. And of course the Global Defense Initiative and the Brotherhood of Nod would use refined Tiberium to fund their militaries.
However, nothing comes for free. Tiberium, although valuable, brings about costs in terms of health and agriculture. Tiberium easily absorbs nutrients from the soil and thus turns even the best farmland into wastelands. Deaths and illnesses also resulted from gases and spores released by Tiberium. Mutations due to Tiberium exposure arose in human DNA. As we would see in the world of Tiberian Sun, Tiberium permeates the entire Earth with the exception of the polar regions. Indeed, Tiberium was something that was simply too good to be true. There had to be a catch.
The purpose of this article can be stated in one question: How did Tiberium gain widespread acceptance on the worldwide market? Why would banks trade their gold and silver for Tiberium? Why would so many entrepreneurs, militaries, venture capital firms, governments, international organizations, special interests groups and corporations display so much interest about Tiberium? I propose three reasons. The reader may notice the overlap between all three.
Tiberium is, as stated before, easy and cheap to obtain. Gold, silver, and valuable gems are not. With this line of reasoning established, why mine for precious metals and gems when you can find that kind of material in any field of Tiberium? It's little wonder as to why banks, governments, and other organizations deal in Tiberium.
Tiberiums grows everywhere and re- grows when harvested. Tiberium investments would definitely be lucrative. But won't the excess of Tiberium result in inflation? After all, according to the law of supply and demand, an oversupply brings in low prices and an undersupply causes the monetary value of the product to rise. When one applies this to the management of currency, too much cash in print would cause inflation.
Perhaps it should be noted that Tiberium is an expendable product. If there is more refined Tiberium than the banking firms can handle, the surplus can be thrown away. Also, Tiberium is rich in minerals and it can be used as a standard and stabilizer for the world's currencies. This leads to the third reason.
An Ideal Replacement
As stated, Tiberium is cheap and abundant yet valuable. Although Tiberium is not used directly as currency, it is apparently used as a standard. Anyone who plays Command & Conquer would notice that his/her funds comes in the form of credits. The devaluing of gold and silver in the face of Tiberium would mean that Tiberium is the new groundwork on which the worldwide cash supply rests upon if it (the cash) is to retain any value.
Tiberium was probably a godsend for countries that were minor players in the global economy. Large mining companies and special interests notwithstanding, these countries can become powerful economic forces by harvesting Tiberium. It would be reasonable to infer that Tiberium ushered in the era of globalization.
Tiberium, like anything else, has its pros and cons. The positive points were: a more stable world economy, a better stabilizer and standard for currency, the catalyst for globalization, and the rise of more major economic powers. The negatives were: declining health, deaths, illnesses, and mutation of human and animal DNA. Of course, every era has its beginnings and endings. In Tiberian Sun, we saw that the golden age of Tiberium did not last long. The Earth was ravaged by Tiberium growth, forcing human populations to either flee to the Arctic or to risk additional exposure to Tiberium. A free market economy that was dominated by the West was replaced by a command economy under the auspices of the Global Defense Initiative, funded entirely by Tiberium harvests. Later on, another entity would arise, the Brotherhood of Nod and an economy similar if not the same to that of GDI.