Last updated: September 30, 2024
Lesson Plan
Trade Goods
Keeping trade fair at Bent's Fort
NPS photo/D. Ocheltree
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 3.L.4, 3.L.4.a, 4.L.4, 4.L.4.a, 5.L.4, 5.L.4.a
- State Standards:
- 4th Econ. 3.1.c. Give examples of the kinds of goods and services produced in Colorado, in different historical periods, and their connection to economic incentives. 4th Personal Fin. Lit. 5.1 Determine the opportunity cost when making a choice
- Additional Standards:
- 4th Hist. 1.1.c. Explain, through multiple perspectives, the human interactions among people and cultures that are indigenous to or migrated to present-day Colorado. Including...historic tribes of Colorado, Spanish explorers, trappers, and traders
- Thinking Skills:
- Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience.
Essential Question
1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of trading goods and services rather than using currency?
2. What special skills would a customer or a merchant need to ensure a fair trade?
Objective
Through the perspective of seventeen-year-old, Lewis Garrard, learners will practice making trades and consider the types of goods and services exchanged at trading posts along the southwestern borderlands in the 1830s.
Background
INTRO: At about fourteen years of age, Lewis H. Garrard, read John C. Fremont’s Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, an account published in U.S. newspapers in 1843. Fremont’s descriptive account enticed Lewis to venture West by himself only three years later. Garrard wrote his own book of experiences lasting from 1846-1847 titled Wah-to-yah and the Taos Trail. “Wah-to-yah” is a Comanche word meaning “double peaks,” which described the mountainous Spanish Peaks found in southeastern Huerfano County, Colorado. As Lewis set off, Ceran St. Vrain, the founding partner of the Bent, St. Vrain, & Company, guided his wagon from Independence, Missouri to the trading operation along the Arkansas River, known as Bent’s Fort, in September of 1846.
Beginning with a trading scenario game, students will be issued trade goods in the form of cards that they will need to trade for other items. This exercise will ground them in the goods, services, and processes of a trade-based system of commerce prior to engaging with the narrative text.
Preparation
Materials Needed:
- Lewis Garrard “Trade Goods" narrative text
- Trading scenario cards
- Trade Goods Price list
- (optional) Bent’s Old Fort Intro Video showing material culture and trade rooms
Materials
Companion text to Lewis Garrard Trade Goods lesson
Download Lewis Garrard Trade Goods narrative
Companion price list for trading scenario game in Trade Goods lesson
Download Lewis Garrard Trade Goods Price List
Companion trading cards to use for trading scenario activity in Trade Goods lesson plan
Download Lewis Garrard Trading Cards
Lesson Hook/Preview
Ask whole group to brainstorm what goods and services would have been traded during the Fur Trade era of the 1830s and 1840s. Set timer for one minute. Ask volunteers to share ideas. Write ideas on board.
Procedure
Activity:
1. Begin Trading Scenario Game by placing Trading Scenario cards into a large basket. There should be at least 5 cards to every one student. Have students select 5 cards from the basket at random.
2. Pass out the price list. Using the price list, students will calculate the total for the 5 items/services they selected.
3. Pass out trading objective cards at random. Instruct students to make exchanges so that they have the same cards in their hand to match the objective. For example, trade “1 pound of sugar, 1 pound of tea, 1 three-point blanket, and 2 pounds of beads” for "1 mule, 1 pair of wool socks, 1 buffalo robe, and 1 toothbrush."
4. Allow 20-30 minutes for negotiations to take place throughout the group. Once a student has accomplished their objective, they may either act as a “financial adviser” to another trader or begin reading the Lewis Garrard “Trade Goods” narrative.Circulate through the group to check understanding of procedure for objective and math skills.
5. Mid-way through negotiations, ask for a show of hands for students who have made at least one successful trade. Ask whole group to identify and share what is making trade difficult or easy.
6. Give more time to complete trading. Monitor and guide students who have not yet made a successful trade.
7. End trading session by having students calculate what their inventory value is now worth after completing the trade.
Lesson:
1. Ask group if everyone began with an equal inventory value. (Answer: no) Tally how many students increased or decreased their value. Discuss why a person might want to trade a higher valued item for a lower valued one.
2. Finally, ask group to consider how not having equal inventory affected real trade in the 1830s and 1840s.
3. Read Lewis Garrard narrative "Trade Goods." Consider the following questions:
- a. What group of people do you think purchased buffalo robes? Why?
- b. What language and money value is “dos pesos”?
- c. “Moren” is not actually a word, but Garrard writes the conversation down the way he hears it. What does “moren” mean as it is used?
- d. If 2 blankets are equal in value to 6 plews and 6 plews are $2 a pair, how much is one blanket?
- e. Since Mexicans traded their corn and beans for meat and robes, what does that tell you about the supplies available in Mexico versus the Plains?
5. Finally, reflect on what "success" for the trading scenario game means. Is it having the highest total value after trading or is it meeting the objectives on the card. What would a merchant's definition be? What would a trader's definition be?
6. Pass out Exit Ticket.
Vocabulary
buffalo robe - a stretched and softened buffalo hide used for warmth
plew - beaver skin
currency - coin or paper money
mulada - herd of mules
primitive - belonging to an earlier time, not modern
shod - to put shoes on or cover the end of an object
Assessment Materials
Lewis Garrard Trade Goods Exit TicketExit Ticket containing the essential questions from Lewis Garrard Trade Goods lesson
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of trading goods and services rather than using currency?
- What special skills would a customer or a merchant need to ensure a fair trade?
Exit ticket containing the essential questions for Lewis Garrard Trade Goods lesson
Rubric/Answer Key
Lewis Garrard Trade Goods Exit TicketPossible answers to essential questions from Lewis Garrard Trade Goods lesson Exit Ticket
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of trading goods and services rather than using currency? Advantages: prices can be negotiated and therefore the customer could end up getting a good deal. Trading allows for more options, especially when a buyer is out of currency. Trading relies on good social relationships. A trader may make more money during times when supply is low and demand is high. Neither party is better than another.Disadvantages: A seller may not have an item that the buyer wants to trade for and therefore would get nothing of value to them in exchange. “Prices” can vary highly and quickly based on more rapid changes in inventory. The process requires more time than currency. There will be times when the two traders never agree, so no transaction will occur.
- What special skills would a customer or a merchant need to ensure a fair trade?Both the merchant and the customer need to develop speaking and negotiation skills. They also need social skills to develop a sense of trust. Both parties need to be aware of the demand of the item and its worth so that they are not taken advantage of. Speaking multiple languages and having quick mental math skills would also be helpful.
Potential answers for essential questions from Lewis Garrard Trade Goods Exit Ticket
Supports for Struggling Learners
Pre-read vocabulary words and definitions. Choose either whole group read aloud, paired, or small group reading of narrative text. Provide peer support for learners with either math or socialization challenges.
Enrichment Activities
Social/Emotional Enrichment:
Think about what items you like or want to have. What item(s) might other people have that would make you want to be friendly with them?
Do you think the people Garrard referenced who were using older systems of agriculture were interested in more advanced American plows? Why or why not? What does this potentially tell you about William Bent?