Unit Plan 32 (Grade 7 Social Studies): Economic Systems and Interdependence
Compare mercantilism, capitalism, and early market economies—examining scarcity, opportunity cost, and exchange systems—to understand how trade, credit, and innovation built global interdependence and economic change.
Focus: Compare mercantilism, capitalism, and early market economies; analyze scarcity, opportunity cost, exchange systems, and how interdependence emerges.
Grade Level: 7
Subject Area: Social Studies (World History • Geography • Civics • Economics • Inquiry)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 50–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
Students investigate how societies allocate scarce resources through different economic systems. Using short texts, maps, ledgers, and simulations, they define scarcity/opportunity cost, identify producers/consumers/industries, and compare barter, money, credit, taxation in medieval and early modern contexts. They evaluate how rules (tariffs, monopolies, charters) and innovations (banks, bills of exchange) shaped growth and interdependence.
Essential Questions
- How do rules and institutions shape who gains and who pays in an economy?
- What trade-offs do people face under mercantilism vs. emerging capitalism?
- How do exchange systems (barter, money, credit, taxation) connect regions and create interdependence?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- Explain scarcity and opportunity cost in historical choices (e.g., merchants balancing risk/reward on long routes).
- Identify producers, consumers, and key industries (textiles, metals, sugar/spice trades, banking) in medieval/early modern economies.
- Describe and compare barter, coin/money, credit, and taxation, and how these systems supported economic growth.
- Construct a change/continuity explanation of the shift from mercantilist controls to early capitalist markets with cited evidence.
Standards Alignment — 7th Grade (C3-based custom)
- 7.C3.Econ.1 — Scarcity, choice, opportunity cost (historical/regional contexts).
- 7.C3.Econ.2 — Producers, consumers, industries in medieval/early modern economies.
- 7.C3.Econ.3 — Systems of exchange (barter, money, credit, taxation) and economic growth.
- 7.C3.Hist.5 — Explanations of change/continuity with multiple causes and evidence.
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can name the trade-off (opportunity cost) in a historical decision and justify it.
- I can map a simple supply chain (producer → merchant → market) and label producers/consumers/industries.
- I can compare mercantilism and capitalism with two accurate features and one historical example.
- I can use at least two sources to support a claim about change or continuity in economic systems.