Can we get a "simple questions" megathread?

Ive had a bunch of small questions about things that aren't explained yet in game or on the wiki but I feel like it's just clutter/gets lost in in the sub and I imagine others have the same

As for the question that made me think of this - what is the relationship between silver and gold/minting? I saw something about how if you produce them you should ban exports to keep it all for yourself. That made me think having it cheap would mean more minting. But when I look at minting it just seems like its a flat % based on how much I produce. Which would then mean I would want to export to a) make all that bank, and b) keep the price high so they are easy to expand and fill, right?