Why were boomtown merchants able to sell their products for so much money and how do you know this? passage;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 pooped 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 $17.00. Not everyone who joined I the California Gold Rush got rich, but most of the boomtown merchants did.