Importing items that the Gulch could not supply?
I guess people were pretty good at supplying their
own needs there. But even if some of them were going out occasionally (as to the jobs they worked most of the year), and brought these in, what "rate" are you talking about? They had
gold money. I guess the price would be what-
ever the buyer and seller agreed to.

I feel like such a gulch geek when I have these conversations. Fun.....but geeky. :)

I can explain that, at least from what AS the novel suggested.

John Galt made abundantly clear: no exchange rate. But Midas said he had a particular supply channel from the outside, where he could obtain steel, coal, and so on. Ragnar Danneskjöld had a reputation for seizing steel, coal, and other cargoes from "relief ship(s), subsidy ship(s), loan ship(s), gift ship(s)," etc. He told Henry Rearden he had a group of discreet customers who bought his booty and paid him in gold.

Now do I really stretch imagination when I say that Midas was Ragnar's discreet customer, and Ragnar was Midas' equally discreet supply channel?

The Gulch achieved complete self-sufficiency with the defections of Henry Rearden and Dagny Taggart. Rearden brought with him the secret of his Metal, so he could use Francisco's copper and combine it with the iron Ken Dannager prospected for. Dagny finally built the narrow-gauge railroad from D'Anconia Copper Number One to the base of the valley.

As others have already pointed out, with the destruction of Colorado, Ellis Wyatt, Andrew Stockton, Lawrence Hammond, and so many others converted whatever they could lay their hands on into gold or machinery. John Galt organized the flights that airlifted all this into the valley. Then and only then did the valley really develop into an industrialized society.

But no exchange took place. Ragnar Danneskjöld simply took back from the tax collectors the taxes they had collected over the years from several identified strikers, recruits, and prospects. He delivered either the goods those taxes had bought, or such gold as certain resistance movements in the People's States of Whatever managed to liberate from their own countries' central banks.

AS, the movie series, left a great deal out that was explained in the book. It also included much (like cell phone coverage and modern conveniences) that the book didn't include, as The Gulch was a fairly primitive settlement. I mean, homes were built with local materials, by their owners, etc.

In Dagny's case, the book explained that strikers had to convert their wealth to gold, before coming to The Gulch...as difficult as that would've been. I can't imagine doing it at today's rates of around $1100 for a $50 gold piece, thanks to the devaluation of our paper currency, over the years.

I have to say that the whole mulch phenomenon was contained in a work of fiction to bring out the ideas she wanted readers to understand.
The book implies the gulch was started from scratch and when reading the book I just ignored the whole issue as I think was intended.

There were details of gulch life that didn't make sense In AS and couldn't be ignored.

- How did the cars get there without the government finding out. There would have to roads making it not completely hidden by that optical ray shield
- the cars had Colorado license plates which wouldn't be needed in the gulf
- How did refrigerators and other large commercially made items get there
-why wouldn't galt just drive there?

- the houses were not just cabins but had modern conveniences
-if people in this forum wanted a completely hidden gulch, it would be exceedingly difficult to bring many modern conveniences of any size there without being detected. I could see small log cabins, maybe running water from local creeks, electricity from some magical source, but it would be rustic life until we were free to do it in the open

There are many unanswered questions in the movie. For example how did they establish a cellphone network without outside purchases? Where do they get the fuel for the automobiles and airplanes? The movie implies the presence of a complex infrastructure. There is no mention of petroleum refineries. Etc. But so what? These issues do not detract from the point she was trying to make.

"Atlas Snubbed" addresses this question very well.

Can't do it all in 1200 pages...