Let’s get started a long time ago we had people that were on the earth that were known as hunter-gatherers hunter-gatherer, people that would hunt for food and meat particularly in the form of animals, also during this time these hunter-gatherers lived in caves or temporary dwellings as ahead to move around for season to season looking for different food sources, during this time the food that was exchanged was really food for food so this is the basis of economics.
We had maybe some people trading meat for berries, and that was the extent of economics. Now because these people had to move around, they couldn’t really make any more economic advances because they’re just worried about what food they have. Now something important happens called the Agricultural Revolution,
the Agricultural Revolution
What this really means, is that people figure out that you can take a seed, put it in the ground, and a little time later a plant will grow which you can then eat. They also figure out that you can take multiple seeds and put them in the ground and really multiply your food, now this had the effect of farms being developed and because they can grow lots of food in one area of land they can now set up permanently into villages because they have the nearby farms where they can plant their seeds and feed the population that is around.
What also happens during this time, these hunter-gatherers decide maybe they don’t want to do those old things anymore such as hunting or farming, maybe they want to do something more creative and so another economic activity is added to our history of economics and that is the creation of tools and goods and services that can be exchanged for food.
So during this first agricultural revolution we have this new element of economics being added, quite a while later there’s another agricultural revolution and during this time people figured how to use science and math and new discoveries to create more and more food. Because so much food is being created there is something called a surplus or more than what they need now they have more than what they need, which means they can box it up and they can ship it to other countries. So, villages started to become cities at this point because the villages were sustained by a little bit of food but now since the surplus, more and more people are able to concentrate in one area because if they run out of food the surplus can be shipped in from other villages and other towns and cities.
the Industrial Revolution
Another event that happens is called the Industrial Revolution, this is important for us because during this time people figured that machine can do the work of human beings, as a result people started to make factories where Goods can be produced at a mass scale.
This time people figured that they can use steam to power propel vehicles now because of the surplus of food and a surplus of goods that are being produced, these steam boats are different means of transportation lead to a global economy in which goods and services can be transported around the world.
That brings us to our current stage in history too late, so at the beginning we had food being exchanged for food, then we had goods and services, then we had even more food and then we had machinery and goods being produced on mass and factories. Now we are coming to the point where we have ideas and information spreading around the world, my question to you is, what do you think is next? what is a pinnacle of economics with information being traded?
So as by way of review, we looked at hunter-gatherers trading food, we looked at the agricultural revolution, and how planting one seed can make a difference in to where people live and what people do for a living, we looked at industrial revolution and how goods are mass-produced and how the enemy becomes globalized and lastly, we looked at the exchange of ideas.