World History · Resource-planning puzzle

Plan a trading post’s season

Balance supplies, storage, route knowledge, goods, and communication in an invented trading-post model.

Open for classroom testing · About 16 minutes, adjustable

Quanzhou · around 1300Plan a trading post’s season

Resource simulation

Build a plan. Test the tradeoffs.

Historical comparison: Quanzhou on China’s southeast coast was a maritime trade hub during the Song and Yuan periods, from the 10th through 14th centuries. UNESCO identifies evidence of ceramic and iron production, docks, bridges, and administrative and religious sites. Those remains help us investigate how production, transport, and institutions connected a port with a wider region. Now test a separate fictional planning model: allocate 100 tokens across five priorities, then compare its assumptions with that historical evidence. The tokens are not Quanzhou’s money or budget.

Fictional simulation values. This is an invented model inspired by exchange networks. It does not reproduce a particular society, date, economy, or historical budget. All effect sizes, costs, and targets are fictional; the source readings support the historical context, not the formulas.

Total available100planning tokens

Left to allocate0planning tokens

Food and basic supplies

Each token adds 1.2 supply points and 0.2 exchange points.

10–40 planning tokens, in steps of 5

Storage and maintenance

Each token adds 1.4 storage points and 0.2 exchange points.

10–40 planning tokens, in steps of 5

Route information

Each token adds 1.2 travel-preparation points and 0.3 exchange points.

5–35 planning tokens, in steps of 5

Market goods

Each token adds 1.8 exchange points but subtracts 0.2 storage points.

5–40 planning tokens, in steps of 5

Interpreters and communication

Each token adds 1.2 communication points and 0.4 exchange points.

5–35 planning tokens, in steps of 5

Course connections

Reviewed NC references: WH.E.1.1

Voluntary national references: D2.His.1.9-12 · 2.H.2

Compare the activity’s scope with your own course requirements. These connections identify practice opportunities; they do not establish full standards mastery or a match for every state.