Economic Phenomena in Folk Tales

     The events in this story show a barter system. Mr. Vinegar changed cow for bagpipes, bagpipes for gloves and gloves for stick (without using any money).

              
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Jack and the Beanstalk

                      

Economic Phenomena:

• Barter
• Exchange

The tale “Jack and the Beanstalk” also focuses on the problems of barter and exchange.

Once upon a time there lived a poor widow who had an only son named Jack. She was very poor, for times had been hard, and Jack was too young to work. Almost all the furniture of the little cottage had been sold to buy bread, until at last there was nothing left worth selling. Only the good cow, Milky White, remained, and she gave milk every morning, which they took to market and sold. But one sad day Milky White gave no milk, and then things looked bad indeed. And mother sent Jack to the market to sell the cow.

On his way to the market he met a butcher, who offered Jack to exchange his cow for magical beans. If you plant them overnight, by the next morning they'll grow up and reach the sky.

"Done!" cried Jack, who was so delighted with the bargain that he ran all the way home to tell his mother how lucky he had been. But oh! How disappointed the poor widow was. She was very angry and threw the beans out of the window into the garden.

When Jack woke up the next morning, the room was almost dark; and he jumped out of bed and ran to the window to see what the matter was. The sun was shining brightly outside, but from the ground right up beside his window there was growing a great beanstalk, which stretched up and up as far as he could see, into the sky.

"I’ll just see where it leads to," thought Jack, and with that he stepped out of the window on to the beanstalk, and began to climb upwards. He climbed up and up and he found himself in a new and beautiful country. A little way off there was a great castle, with a broad road leading straight up to the front gate. But what most surprised Jack was to find a beautiful maiden suddenly standing beside him.

"Good morning, ma'am," said he, very politely.

"Good morning, Jack," said she; and Jack was more surprised than ever, for he could not imagine how she had learned his name. But he soon found that she knew a great deal more about him than his name; for she told him how, when he was quite a little baby, his father, a gallant knight, had been slain by the giant who lived in yond castle, and how his mother, in order to save Jack, had been obliged to promise never to tell the secret.

"All that the giant has is yours," she said, and then disappeared quite as suddenly as she came.

As he drew near to the castle, he saw the giant's wife standing at the door.

She fed him, but warned him about her husband, who could eat Jack. But before he had half finished it there came a terrible knock at the front door, which seemed to shake even the thick walls of the castle. It was the giant.

He ate the dinner and sad: "Wife, bring me my money-bags." So his wife brought him two full bags of gold, and the giant began to count his money. But he was so sleepy that his head soon began to nod, and then he began to snore, like the rumbling of thunder. Then Jack crept out, snatched up the two bags, he made his way down the beanstalk back to the cottage before the giant awoke. Jack and his mother were now quite rich; but it occurred to him one day that he would like to see how matters were going on at the giant's castle. So while his mother was away at market, he climbed up. The giantess was standing at the door, just as before, but she did not know Jack, who, of course, was more finely dressed than on his first visit.

He asked her to give him something to eat. The giantess had a kind heart, and after a time she allowed Jack to come into the kitchen. But before he had half finished it there came a terrible knock at the front door. It was the giant.

He ate his dinner and called out: "Wife, bring the little brown hen!" The giantess went out and brought in a little brown hen, which she placed on the table. This hen gave golden eggs!

The giant fell asleep and as soon as he began to snore, Jack crept out of the oven, went on tiptoe to the table, and, snatching up the little brown hen, made a dash for the door. Then the hen began to cackle, and the giant began to wake up; but before he was quite awake, Jack had escaped from the castle.

Jack and his mother had now more money than they could spend. But Jack was always thinking about the beanstalk; and one day he crept out of the window again, and climbed up, and up, and up, and up, until he reached the top.

This time he was careful not to be seen; so he crept round to the back of the castle, and when the giant's wife went out he slipped into the kitchen and hid himself in the oven. The giant came and ate his dinner.

When the giant had finished, he called out: "Wife, bring me the golden harp!" So she brought in the golden harp, and placed it on the table. "Sing!" said the giant; and the harp at once began to sing the most beautiful songs that ever were heard. It sang so sweetly that the giant soon fell fast asleep; and then Jack crept quietly out of the oven, and going on tiptoe to the table, seized hold of the golden harp. But the harp at once called out: "Master! Master!" and the giant woke up just in time to catch sight of Jack running out of the kitchen-door. Before he could pick himself up, Jack began to climb down the beanstalk, and when the giant arrived at the edge he was nearly half-way to the cottage. The giant began to climb down too; but as soon as Jack saw him coming, he called out: "Mother, bring me an axe!" and the widow hurried out with a chopper. Jack had no sooner reached the ground than he cut the bean-stalk right in two. Down came the giant with a terrible crash, and that, you may be sure, was the end of him. What became of the giantess and the castle nobody knows. But Jack and his mother grew very rich, and lived happy ever after.

Jack and the old man traded the cow and beans. The old man bartered the beans for the cow.

                      
 
 
 
 
 
 

Simple Simon Meets a Producer

                                

  Even some rhymes use these economic terms as barter, exchange and their plots. For example, a classic rhyme Simple Simon and the Pie-Man. 

Simple Simon and the Pie-Man. 

Simple Simon met a pieman

Going to the fair;

Says Simple Simon to the pieman,

"Let me taste your ware." 

Says the pieman to Simple Simon,

"Show me first your penny."

Says Simple Simon to the pieman,

"Indeed, I have not any." 

Simple Simon went a-fishing

For to catch a whale;

All the water he had got

Was in his mother's pail.

Simple Simon went to look

If plums grew on a thistle;

He pricked his fingers very much,

Which made poor Simon whistle. 

Consumers and producers need each other. Consumers need producers to make the goods and services they buy and use. Producers need consumers to buy the goods and services they want to sell.

This classic rhyme contains some other economic phenomena:

• Capital Resources (Resources made and used to produce and distribute goods and services; examples include tools, machinery and buildings).
• Consumers (People who use goods and services to satisfy their personal needs and not for resale or in the production of other goods and services).
• Goods (Tangible objects that satisfy economic wants).
• Producers (People and firms that use resources to make goods and services).
• Production (The act, process or result of manufacturing or refining something).
• Services (Activities performed by people, firms or government agencies to satisfy economic wants).

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

          The Tortoise and the Hare

                     

Economic Phenomenon:

• Specialization

In the economic sense, it’s the social phenomenon of individual human beings or organizations each concentrating their productive efforts on a rather limited range of tasks. Specialization entails focusing on a narrow area of knowledge or skill or activity. It involves a person's or an organization's adapting for the unusually effective or efficient performance of some particular function, often at the expense of the individual's or organization's ability to perform most other functions for themselves, which are then necessarily left to others with more appropriate skills or talents or abilities. Like the division of labor, specialization generally comes about because it is discovered (usually by trial and error) that the individuals or groups concerned can increase their productivity (and hence, under a market economy, their incomes) through greater specialization according to the principle of comparative advantage.

The well-known tale “The Tortoise and the hare” is about this economic phenomenon.

Once upon a time there was a hare who, boasting how he could run faster than anyone else, was forever teasing tortoise for its slowness. Then one day, the irate tortoise answered back: "Who do you think you are? There's no denying you're swift, but even you can be beaten!" The hare squealed with laughter.

"Beaten in a race? By whom? Not you, surely! I bet there's nobody in the world that can win against me, I'm so speedy. Now, why don't you try?"

Annoyed by such bragging, the tortoise accepted the challenge. A course was planned, and the next day at dawn they stood at the starting line. The hare yawned sleepily as the meek tortoise trudged slowly off. When the hare saw how painfully slow his rival was, he decided, half asleep on his feet, to have a quick nap. "Take your time!" he said. "I'll have forty winks and catch up with you in a minute."

The hare woke with a start from a fitful sleep and gazed round, looking for the tortoise. But the creature was only a short distance away, having barely covered a third of the course. Breathing a sigh of relief, the hare decided he might as well have breakfast too, and off he went to munch some cabbages he had noticed in a nearby field. But the heavy meal and the hot sun made his eyelids droop. With a careless glance at the tortoise, now halfway along the course, he decided to have another snooze before flashing past the winning post. And smiling at the thought of the look on the tortoise's face when it saw the hare speed by, he fell fast asleep and was soon snoring happily. The sun started to sink, below the horizon, and the tortoise, who had been plodding towards the winning post since morning, was scarcely a yard from the finish. At that very point, the hare woke with a jolt. He could see the tortoise a speck in the distance and away he dashed. He leapt and bounded at a great rate, his tongue lolling, and gasping for breath. Just a little more and he'd be first at the finish. But the hare's last leap was just too late, for the tortoise had beaten him to the winning post. Poor hare! Tired and in disgrace, he slumped down beside the tortoise who was silently smiling at him.

"Slowly does it every time!" he said.

 What a great community of workers there is in the story of the "Tortoise and the Hare!" A family of squirrels runs the marketplace, the family of pigs owns a bakery, and families of the dogs and cats own the local dairy. Mr. R.S. Tortoise and Daniel Hare should respect each other's attributes, but Mr. Hare thinks Mr. Tortoise is too slow. This classic story illustrates just how wonderful Specialization is! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Conclusion

So, at the end of my work I want to sum up my research and to say that I have proved my hypotheses.

I claimed that a lot of economic phenomena can be met in different folk tales, and it is really so. As we can see, practically in each folk tale we can face these phenomena.

It is not difficult and frightful to study economy, it is actually very interesting and exciting.

Study economy and don’t be afraid of it! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

     The list of the used literature 

• “The Mitten” by Jan Brett
• “The Happy Prince” by Oscar Wilde
• “The Tortoise and the Hare” by Elizabeth Jenkins
• “English Fairytales”
• The Internet:
• www.econedlink.org
• www.ongoing-tales.com
• www.amosweb.com
• www.auburn.edu
• “The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life” by Steven E. Landsburg
• “Applied Economics” by Brian Atkinson, Frank Livesey, Bob Milward