Giants of Industry Activity

This Activity is meant for Scouts BSA.

SELLING price list
BUYING price list
colored beads
various items for manufacturing tasks

this can be a good activity to review skills or repair equipment

Each patrol is given 10 black beads and 2 blue beads.
Each patrol checks out the Buying and Selling price lists to figure out what article they want to manufacture.
Manufactured articles that you buy back should result in a profit, as long as they use items efficiently. But, if they waste 10 matches lighting a fire, there goes their profit, up in smoke.

Some examples:

• Will buy a cup of hot cocoa. To do this they will have to purchase from you a match, cocoa pack, stove, fuel for the cooking stove, water pot and water.
• Will buy three whipped ropes. They need to purchase three ropes and twine.
• Will buy three fused ropes. They need to purchase three ropes, match, candle.
• Will buy a campfire. They need to purchase a small length of wood, hand axe, matches and chop it into tinder, kindling, fuel and build it into a campfire.
• Will buy a comfortable night's rest. They need to purchase tent, sleeping bag, pad, and set it up.

Sample BUYING price list:

• Cocoa - 1 red bead
• Three whipped ropes - 1 orange bead
• Three fused ropes - 1 orange bead
• A Campfire - 1 red bead
• A Night's Rest - 1 orange bead

Sample SELLING price list:

• A match - 1 black bead
• A tea bag - 1 black bead
• A stove - 1 blue bead
• Fuel - 1 black bead
• Water pot - 1 black bead
• Water - 1 blue bead
• Two frayed ropes - 1 black bead
• Five feet of twine - 1 black bead
• A candle - 1 black bead
• 6 inch piece of wood - 1 blue bead
• hand axe - 1 black bead
• tent - 1 black bead
• sleeping bag - 1 black bead
• sleeping pad - 1 black bead

Sample Values of Beads:

• Red - 10
• Orange - 5
• Yellow - 4
• Green - 3
• Blue - 2
• Black - 1

Purchasing the items needed to manufacture an article reduces the patrol's funds. When they successfully sell back their article, they hopefully make a profit.
More complicated tasks should be worth more.

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You may rule that each patrol can only make one of a specific article, or allow mass production of the same thing many times.
If you are cleaning/repairing equipment, then a quality check should be included before payment is made.
Use colored paper, monopoly money, or any other currency you want if you have no beads.
You could have a trading post where patrols can exchange their currency for items - supplies, candy, toys.