Market
Age: | Tool | |
Prerequisites: | Build Town Center, build Granary. | |
Upgrade Cost: | – – – | |
Cost: | 150 wood | |
Hit Points: | 350 | |
Upgrade of: | – – – | |
Special: | – – – |
Description:
The Market lets you build the Farm and lets you research technologies that improve your military units and the effectiveness of your villagers, including Woodworking, Artisanship, Craftsmanship, Stone Mining, Siegecraft, Gold Mining, Coinage, Domestication, the Plow, Irrigation, and the Wheel. You must build the Market before you can build the Government Center or Temple.
Researching Architecture increases hit points and decreases construction time.
History
The specialization made possible by the development of agriculture created the need for a place where craftsmen could meet to barter their wares for those of others and for food. The Market in each town and village was the place where barter and exchange took place. The development of the Market marked the change from the small hunting/foraging group that shared its harvest to the much more complex economy that rose with the rise of towns and cities. Specialization resulted in efficiencies of scale and greater overall production, but the Market was needed to allocate the community’s production fairly among the food providers and specialists. The profit motive spurred innovation to increase production. The potter, for example, looked for ways to make more and better pots for the same effort to increase the amount of food that he could obtain by trading pots.