Furs, tobacco and Aztec silver.
Alien life, even if it is based on our familiar carbon/water chemistry, will be so different from anything we know that it will have immediate economic as well as scientific consequences. Our familiar biochemistry has already inspired great industries and sciences, an alternate model for ultimate complexity will provide us with new areas to explore and develop we cannot even imagine.
There is much more than philosophical or scientific curiosity at stake here. A spoonful of soil with a few Martian microbes, or a bit of plankton from the Jovian ice moons will be a great treasure. Even the pre-biotic chemistry of Titan will show us new ways of putting together complex molecular structures of great practical value.