Price and exchanges thumb|World production and price (US exchange) of tin Tin is unique among mineral commodities because of the complex agreements between producer countries and consumer countries dating back to 1921. Earlier agreements tended to be somewhat informal and led to the "First International Tin Agreement" in 1956, the first of a series that effectively collapsed in 1985. Through these agreements, the International Tin Council (ITC) had a considerable effect on tin prices. ITC supported the price of tin during periods of low prices by buying tin for its buffer stockpile and was able to restrain the price during periods of high prices by selling from the stockpile. This was an anti-free-market approach, designed to assure a sufficient flow of tin to consumer countries and a profit for producer countries. However, the buffer stockpile was not sufficiently large, and during most of those 29 years tin prices rose, sometimes sharply, especially from 1973 through 1980 when rampant inflation plagued many world economies.
price and exchanges thumb|world production and price (us exchange) of tin tin is unique among mineral commodities because of the complex agreements between producer countries and consumer countries dating back to 1921 earlier agreements tended to be somewhat informal and led to the "first international tin agreement" in 1956 the first of a series that effectively collapsed in 1985 through these agreements the international tin council (itc) had a considerable effect on tin prices itc supported the price of tin during periods of low prices by buying tin for its buffer stockpile and was able to restrain the price during periods of high prices by selling from the stockpile this was an anti-free-market approach designed to assure a sufficient flow of tin to consumer countries and a profit for producer countries however the buffer stockpile was not sufficiently large and during most of those 29 years tin prices rose sometimes sharply especially from 1973 through 1980 when rampant inflation plagued many world economies