Transcript - Izzit.org

MAN: Remember that first day The Fishers brought an enormous load of beautiful fresh salmon –
beautiful it was! Everybody swapped their cloth, their milk and their fruit, and even a stool from Mr.
Carpenter for the fish.
WOMAN: Swapping worked so well, we began to do it every day for things like raspberries, and milk
and fish that don’t last but we want every day. There was no end to what we could swap if someone else
wanted it.
MAN: Even Mr. Mason promised to build a jetty for the Fishers, if they would supply him with one
salmon a week for the whole year.
WOMAN: Yes, everybody thought it was a wonderful system except the Shepherds. They brought
practically nothing to swap.
MAN: When anyone made a bargain it was marked on the wall for everyone to see. That’s why we
called our square the “mark it place,” it became the busiest place in the village – in fact, it became the
village center.
WOMAN: Oh, dear! The Shepherds had a pretty thin time that first day, especially as the Fishers had
brought along masses of salmon which made up for the shortage of mutton. That night, the Shepherds
went home practically empty-handed. But the next week was a different story. The Shepherds came back
with an enormous supply of sheep. Mrs. Shepherd said that last week she had lost her sheep and didn’t
know where to find them ‘til this week. And if you believe that you’ll believe anything.
MAN: Well, as time went by- the market became the best family outing of the week. Not only did
everyone discover the value of their produce for everyone else that day, they saw all their work rewarded.
WOMAN: They discovered other things, too. They found out what was happening in the village. They
found out what people needed so that they knew what to provide next time.
MAN: Of course, the word “market” didn’t really originate from the mark on the wall of the barn, and
the world we’re living in these days is very different from the kind of life you saw in our village. But,
from time to time, people do try to live without markets. The famous example is the kibbutz in Israel.
Here everyone works for the community, but the most successful depend on growing or producing things
which are then exported and sold in the markets of the world to provide money for the kibbutz’ common
pool. In return for their work- people get food and shelter but few of the kibbutzes are really selfsufficient.
WOMAN: In the 1960s, many groups of hippies tried to make new lives for themselves, by getting
together to grow their own food, make their own clothes- and even build their own villages. Their idea
was to share everything equally, but not many of their communities flourished. Some people found life
too hard; there were personality clashes and people walked out; others needed doctors or medicines and
when there weren’t any they left, too. But hippie communes that survived tended to specialize in crafts,
leatherworks, gem works, and jewelry. But to sell their work, and to buy what they needed to live, they
had to take their wares outside to the markets. Like the people in a kibbutz, they quickly realized the
undeniable advantages of a market to the survival of their chosen way of life.
MAN: Markets just spring up spontaneously. Look at car boot sales – nobody launched them, they just
happened. Now tens of thousands of people go there every week
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