I'll work with your example Pip. Someone had to mine the resources, which takes tools, time, and some luck. Someone had to trade said resources, which requires bargaining and initial tradeables. And someone had to spend the time to load/wait/retrieve said gold from the smelter.
So how is any of this free? I'm not saying the numbers are perfect, that's what the forum population is meant to help on. All I'm saying is, from my perspective, time = money, so if you spend your time making gold, it's only worth the time you spent to make it/market value X demand