The Economic Organisation of a P.O.W. Camp

[MachineGhost]

This paper has some really fascinating insights such as the lack of production or labor not being necessary for an economy to exist, cigarettes being used as a medium of exchange, constant deflation intersped by bursts of high inflation, spontaneous co-operation and equilibrium, Gresham's Law applied to cigarettes, etc..  Well worth reading!

Although  a  P.O.W.  camp  provides  a  living  example  of  a  simple economy  which  might  be  used  as  an  alternative  to  the  Robinson Crusoe economy beloved by the text-books,  and its simplicity renders the demonstration of  certain  economic hypotheses  both  amusing and instructive, it is suggested that the principal significance is sociological. True, there is interest in observing the growth of  economic institutions and customs in a brand  new society, small and simple enough to pre- vent  detail from obscuring the basic pattern and  disequilibrium  from obscuring the working  of  the system.  But  the  essential  interest  lies in the universality  and the spontaneity of  this economic life ; it came into  existence  not  by  conscious  imitation  but  as  a  response  to  the immediate  needs  and  circumstances.  Any  similarity  between  prison organisation and outside organisation arises from similar stimuli evoking similar responses.

http://facstaff.uww.edu/kashianr/POWCampRadford.pdf