Assignment #3

Reba Gagne

Professor Rainville

Assignment #3

The New Sweet Briar Currency

            Barter systems have been used for hundreds of years. Ancient cultures used food such as coco beans to trade for more valuable items. In times of economic struggles people tend to invest in items that will retain their value even if the current currency is worthless. For example in Romania during the presidency of Nicolae Ceausescu the money had no value even though they had an abundance of it. To compensate the people paid for everything in cartons and boxes of cigarettes. In the new sweet briar currency I am taking this same concept and applying it to ramen noodles.

            This new currency is reliable because there are identical parts of measure for each unit. This means that all have the same weight and if opened the currency has then lost its value as currency however still can maintain its value as a delicious food source for college students.

            To relate the values of this resource to modern American currency each individual pack of ramen would be worth approximately $2 to make math straightforward and because that is what you would pay now for an individual package of ramen. That means that the 12 pack boxes of ramen would then be worth $24, and 2 of these boxes (i.e. a crate of ramen) would be worth $48 in traditional American currency. However when $5 is needed you would need to have the Cup o Noodle’s   (ramen in a cup with veggies in it) because that would be equivalent to one pack of ramen plus the extra nutrients and vegetation.  These different values can then be mixed and matched to come up with the value needed for any particular item. (i.e. 1 box and 2 packages would equal $16 of traditional American currency). 

Each value was calculated by its nutritional value and how it can be used as food. Obviously ramen noodles are not the healthiest food in the world therefore, individually wrapped packages are worth less than the cup of noodles that contains actual vegetables. Each unit after this is proportionally valued based on weight amount and nutrition as explained in previous paragraphs.

The theory of value behind the ramen noodles is already in place and therefore a new one does not need to come about. Ramen is not difficult to cook and has an extremely long shelf life therefore; it is already valued by most college students who like to eat or who get sick of eating at Prothro or the Bistro. However because it is still food, it can be traded with others for say either better food or other items of value such as books or school supplies. 

In conclusion I predict that this form of currency would produce new social classes. The people with the most value would not only have the most items of value but also would not go hungry and have a lot of ramen on hand. This new money system is flawed because it is not convenient to carry around. However, a possible solution could be to barter ramen for items of higher value that are easier to carry and can then be traded for something else.