One morning the Econ family saw a number of boats approaching their island. Presently, 10 couples with their children would arrive the island and these humgry, feeble and sick group was surprised to find Econ family receving them. These group had lost their way in the storm and were without food and water for weeks before they reached the shores of Wonderland. In a few days they would recover to normal health, thanks to the hospitality and care of the Econ family. They decided that it was not possible for them to go back to their own lands as they had no idea where the Wonderland was located in relation to their orginal home land and in any case they were driven out from their homeland by the rulers. They had to set up new home in Wonderland. But the land in this island was claimed by Econ family. The Econ family agreed to sale some land to each of the ten families. But how would they pay the Econ family; they had nothing with them to offer. So, it was decided that they would pay the Econ family over the next five years out of the produce they generate using the land they would now purchase. Price was fixed at F20,000 for each piece of land.
How was the price arrived at? Econ calculated that if they would employ each family to gather fruit from each plot of land they would have plucked enough fruits to feed and shelter them and have a surplus of about 2000 fruits per year surplus to give to Econ family as rent for the land. Econ thought 10 years' land rent could be fixed as the price of land.
One of the families, the Marx family, decided to rent out the land and pay 2000 fruits per year, while the other families decided to buy the land. But how could they pay. They would also pay over a period of five years. Since they would be paying over a period of time, they would have to pay more than 20,000 fruits. It was decided that they would pay F5277 fruits annually for the next five years. In a sense, each of the family took a loan of F20,000 from Econ family and agreed to pay back with interest of 10% per year on reducing balances. The equated annual instalment on that basis worked out to 5277 fruits.
However, all the families demanded that all fruits are not of equal value because they would taste differently and weigh differently and should not be priced at F1 a piece. It was a big problem. It was decided that the price of the fruits would depend on the market as the fruits are bought and and sold. It was decided also that a standard bag filled with apples would be priced at F10 for conveniece to start with. No rotten or damaged fruit would be bought and sold in the market. The prices of other fruits will be determined in relation to the price of apples depending on demand and supply in the market: that is to say that the jackfruits containing the same standard bag could be higher or lower than F10. The same would be true of all other fruits.
In order to facilitate the exchange of goods among the families it was decided that the Ekon family issues some currency F. The Ekons agreed to issue 1100 F1 paper notes with the signature of EKON & Wonder. Each family including Ekon family were issued 100 notes. The 10 new families took these as loans from the ekon family and agreed to repay this small loan by selling goods to the Ekon family over the next one year. It was also agreed that the Ekons would not issue any further notes untill all families decided to agree to such a decision.together. So the notes were numbered from 1 to 1100.
With these notes available, the 10 families would pay daily wages to the membes of the Marx family for their labour services and also purchase different goods from each other. And, a new community life bagan in Woderland with paper notes acting as medium of exchange. Soon however Wonderland would give up the system of paper currency. But that is next.
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