In a laboratory on a little known continent. Also, emerald ore is hard to find and would require silk touch to get. And normal emeralds are so easy to get from villagers in town.
This ended up tl;dr, haha. Emeralds will reach a floor and should equalize the prices for items that they are compatible with, which don't have some other intrinsic value (like crafting materials) ie.(using the best possible exchange rates for these scenarios) As an exchange for a single emerald, the following items all have the same value relative to emeralds 1 authored book = 4 diamonds = 8 gold/iron = 9 fish = 12 books = 14 beef/pork/chicken/wool = 16 coal = 18 wheat = 19 paper Authored books are generally a bad trade, since they don't stack and can have a value beyond their material uses (priceless) diamonds are a bad trade because of their usefulness in other areas, and because at current prices, diamonds and emeralds have about the same rupee value. gold and iron have the potential to be a good trade (because they are renewable from [pig]zombies) but aren't because of their material value and because their renewable source is tedious. fish are a bad trade because fishing in MC is terrible, end of story. books are a bad trade because even pre-patch books take 3 paper and villagers trade paper 19 to 1, using books instead makes that conversion 36:1, bad, plus books need leather now. meat: meat can be gained just from traveling in the wilderness, but it's not efficient. Meat can be farmed, but wheat is a trade in itself so assuming a 1:1 drop on meat (I know looting can increase this) you'd be spending 28 wheat on animal mating to get 1 emerald, when you could just trade the wheat and still have 10 more wheat left over. Chickens are somewhat self-sustaining, but it's going to take on average 112 chicken eggs to give you enough for 1 emerald so all of the aforementioned trades are generally inefficient and won't effect the 'bottom' price for emeralds as time progresses. So, moving on to the more-renewables, here's where the system will reach some kind of stabilization point. wool: wool is probably far-and-away the most efficient trade for emerald in terms of time vs. renewability, and will likely (along with wheat, once servers are running more efficiently) be the driving force towards a bottom price for emerald coal: Not coal itself, though it may be with how abundant it is in all levels of stone, this speaks more to charcoal which can be produced from trees, 1 wood block makes enough planks to produce 6 pieces of charcoal, so 18.5 wood net you a single emerald (after smelting). With appropriate tools, charcoal farming for coal could become very effective. wheat: wheat is easily and widely farmed, to the point that people could acquire vast amounts of wheat for very little rupee cost. If anything, emerald trading for wheat will bring the pre-patch cost of wheat up. paper: paper is a slightly less efficient trade then wheat, grows slower and has more growing environment requirements than wheat, it's not a bad trade, it just won't impact prices either way on it's own. So, what do these easy-to-acquire commodities mean? Now, anything that can be traded for emeralds and anything that can be acquired with emeralds can be priced in terms of each other. I'll ignore the first set of trades, because they all have a higher cost than the emerald they return and stick only with the second set: 14 wool (= 56 string) = 16 coal (= 18.5 wood) = 18 wheat = 19 paper = 1 emerald. If you are saying that 'x' is the rupee value, then you are also saying that each of these other commodities has the same value (since they generally cost less prior to 1.3) From a trading "emeralds for" perspective, the only villagers we care about are the blacksmith and the priest, all the others' trades are either not worth the emerald cost, or they sell things that are nearly as easy to acquire as the materials for emeralds. Blacksmith: Assuming you were going to get diamonds to make these items, or consider buying them from someone who is using the diamond cost to base the price on: [1.40e/d] diamond helmet = 5 diamonds = 7 emeralds = 98 wool = 112 coal = 126 wheat = 133 paper [1.40e/d] diamond boots = 5 diamonds = 7 emeralds = 98 wool = 112 coal = 126 wheat = 133 paper [1.57e/d] diamond legs = 7 diamonds = 11 emeralds = 154 wool = 176 coal = 198 wheat = 209 paper [2.00e/d] diamond chest = 8 diamonds = 16 emeralds = 224 wool = 256 coal = 288 wheat = 304 paper [3.00e/d] diamond axe = 3 diamonds = 9 emeralds = 126 wool = 144 coal = 162 wheat = 171 paper [3.33e/d] diamond pick = 3 diamonds = 10 emeralds = 140 wool = 160 coal = 180 wheat = 190 paper [3.50e/d] diamond hoe = 2 diamonds = 7 emeralds = 98 wool = 112 coal = 126 wheat = 133 paper [6.00e/d] diamond sword = 2 diamonds = 12 emeralds = 168 wool = 192 coal = 216 wheat = 228 paper [7.00e/d] diamond shovel = 1 diamond = 7 emeralds = 98 wool = 112 coal = 126 wheat = 133 paper Buying diamonds to make any of these items only makes sense if the time or rupee or convenience cost of emeralds is less than the benefit of not having to deplete ones own diamond stock (or rupee stock) to get the raw materials. This gives people more freedom to use diamonds as construction material as they can now acquire diamond goods without ever removing diamonds (which can be a construction material as diamond blocks) from the economy. In a world where noone needs to use actual diamonds to make diamond tools anymore (though the exchange rate for swords and shovels is pretty absymal) I'd start to expect to see diamond tools be priced more in terms of a stabilized emerald than in terms of the diamonds require to build them oneself. Chain armor is more of an aesthetic thing, and trading is the only way to get it (unless it's in EMC shop), Priest: Enchants aside, priests have Bottle o' Enchanting and much easier to acquire glowstone to offer: 1 Bottle o' Enchanting = 1/4 emerald = 3.5 wool = 4 coal = 4.5 wheat = 4.75 paper 1 Glowstone = 1/3 emerald = 4.66 wool = 5.33 coal = 6 wheat = 6.33 paper BoE is kind of it's own thing, so that won't impact much. but now 1 glowstone = 2 bread (figuratively) Eat up.
