Fermat's Library | The Economic Organization of a P.O.W. Camp annotated/explaine...
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RMks is an abbreviation for Reichsmarks, the currency of Germany from 1924 until 1948. Oflag camps were German POW camps specifically for officers. The Geneva Convention specified different requirements depending on the rank of the prisoner. For instance, officers were not required to work. Black treacle is a thick, dark molasses syrup that was popular during World War II. It was used in many recipes, including cakes and puddings, as a way to add sweetness and flavor without using sugar. ![](https://i.imgur.com/i6d6pmb.jpg) **B.R.C.S** is an abbreviation for *British Red Cross Society*. R. A. Radford was a British-born American economist born in 1919. In 1939, Radford left Cambridge University to join the British Royal Army. In 1942, he was captured in Libya and would eventually be sent to Stalag VII-A, a POW camp thirty-five miles northeast of Munich. The Germans had built the camp to hold 10,000 Polish prisoners from their 1939 offensive, but when Radford arrived, it was overflowing with soldiers of many nationalities - British, French, Belgian, Dutch, Americans and Yugoslavs. At the time of liberation the camp had 76,248 prisoners.
Radford survived the war and headed back to Cambridge to complete his degree. There he used his experience in Stalag VII-A to write this article on prisoner-of-war camp economics. Gresham's Law is an economic principle that states that "bad money drives out good." In other words, when there are "two types" of money in circulation, the more valuable money will be hoarded, while the less valuable money will be used for transactions. This results in the less valuable money becoming the more common currency. An example of this is when tobacco leaves were used as money in early America. The leaves were often of different sizes and weights, so they were not equal in value. As a result, the smaller and lighter leaves were used for transactions, while the larger and heavier leaves were hoarded. Deflation is a decrease in the price level of goods and services, typically associated with a contraction in the supply of money (in this case the fact that people were choosing to smoke the cigarettes instead of using them as currency). Typically during deflation, the purchasing power of currency rises over time. The Atlantic Charter was a document created as a result of a meeting between United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in August 1941. The Charter set out the goals for the two nations in regards to the war effort and postwar world.
There were eight principal clauses of the charter:
1. No territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom. 2. Territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned. 3. All people had a right to self-determination. 4. Trade barriers were to be lowered. 5. There was to be global economic co-operation and advancement of social welfare. 6. The participants would work for a world free of want and fear. 7. The participants would work for freedom of the seas. 8. There was to be disarmament of aggressor nations and a common disarmament after the
![The Atlantic Charter](https://i.imgur.com/EwsDR37.jpg) *Atlantic Charter* Nazi Germany operated around 1,000 prisoner-of-war camps during World War II.
There were different types of camps. For example: - Oflag or Offizier-Lager ("Officer camp") - These were POW camps for officers. - Stalag or Stammlager ("Base camp") - These were enlisted personnel POW camps.
The POW camp that Radford stayed in was Stalag VII-A i.e. the first enlisted personnel POW camp of the 7th military district.
It's important to note that Germany had signed the [Third Geneva Convention](https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.32_GC-III-EN.pdf) of 1929, which defined humanitarian protections for prisoners of war. For instance article 26 specifies:
> ART. 26. — The basic daily food rations shall be sufficient in quantity, quality and variety to keep prisoners of war in good health and to prevent loss of weight or the development of nutritional deficiencies. > [...] > Sufficient drinking water shall be supplied to prisoners of war. The use of tobacco shall be permitted. A Robinson Crusoe economy is a simple economics framework in which there is only one consumer and one producer. The consumer is Robinson Crusoe and the producer is Crusoe's friend Friday. In this economy, Robinson Crusoe can only consume what Friday produces. This is a very simplified economy, but it illustrates some important points about economics. Bully beef (or simply bully) was tinned corned beef with a small amount of gelatin. ![](https://i.imgur.com/KwUWDUR.png) *Bully Beef* The prisoners would take the raisins and sugar and mash them up, put the mixture in a container, add water and let the mixture ferment. After a few days, the mixture would turn into a crude form of alcohol. In economics, a perfect market is a theoretical ideal of a market in which buyers and sellers are fully informed about prices and product quality, and transactions are completed promptly and without friction. In a perfect market, there is perfect competition, and no single buyer or seller has the power to influence prices.
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