TRADE GOODS AND CURRENCY
MATERIALS AND CURRENCY

Grade Level:
4^th- 8^th

Standards Integration:
Minnesota:

Grades 4-5: Mathematical Concepts and Application-Number Sense
6. Mathematically represent real-life situations.
Social Studies-Geography and Citizenship
1. The interaction of people, places, and locations.
Grades 6-8:Write and Speak-Writing
3a. An idea or opinion that gives a rationale which includes reasons to support or oppose the opinion.
Economics and Business-Informed Consumerism
3. Using information to compare and contrast potential purchases.

North Dakota:
Grades K-4: Social Studies-Economic Systems
4.3.3 Understand the role of currency in everyday life.
Language Arts-Students Engage in the Writing Process
4.4.1 Use knowledge and experience to write
Grades 5-8: Social Studies-Economic Systems
8.3.3 Know the various kinds of specialized institutions that exist in market economies.
Language Arts-Students Engage in the Writing Process
4.8.1 Identify a topic and determine its development.

Materials:
Classroom items such as supplies (pens, pencils, paper clips) or small items the students find of value.

Objectives:

	Through discussion and simulation of trading post operations, the students will begin to understand how trading posts functioned as economic bases.
	The students will share verbally or in writing what particular personal item is most valuable to them.

Background:
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, trade in the Red River Valley was organized around trading posts in places such as Lower Fort Garry and Upper Fort Garry (present day Winnipeg), Fort Pembina, and Fort Abercrombie. Posts operated by the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company were managed by Factors. The posts served British and indigenous employees such as voyageurs, Native peoples, independent tradesmen, and farmers. Rather than use paper money or coins, as we do today, people traded items based on the relative value of that item. The most typical form of currency was the beaver pelt, which had a unit value that could be traded at the company store for cloth, beads, tobacco, pemmican, or other life-sustaining goods.

Pre-Visit Activity:
Engage the students in discussion about how to purchase or barter for goods they want and need if they have no paper money or coins for currency. Ask them how they might determine the value of items they have and items they want without money.

Create a simulated trading post in the classroom where students can trade items such as pencils, paper clips, and pens for other items they need or want. Have the students establish what the most valuable item is and discuss how their trading methods are similar to those of eighteenth and nineteenth century Red River Valley people.

Post-Visit Activity:
Discuss with the students why particular items were of value to people in the past. Students can write about or share what their most valuable item is and explain why it is the most valuable item they own.