Radford (1945) has discussed at length how a prisoner of war camp in the second world war transformed into a viable economic network where cigarettes and food intermittently served as the currency while items such as jam, marmalade, bread, chocolate, and services such as laundry, sewing, handyman and others were exchanged. The author has depicted how the market was formed, how a commonly accepted currency was developed and how market forces drove the prices for different products. The paper forms a thesis statement that ” a viable economic network would be formed even when there are severe restrictions and a common currency is evolved and that the currency is subjected to ups and downs, just like a real market.” Defining the market The market is defined by the inmates of the P.O.W., guards, and the Red Cross parcels that are delivered to each P.O.W., and each individual receives the same amount of goods. The prisoner receives the initial capital free and without excretion or efforts, and it is only his trading skills on how he plays the market that makes him rich or poor. He can barter and exchange the goods only with other inmates and the prison. This forms a closed market. A system has been developed that places a value for each item against each other and against a common currency. The internal market is influenced by the availability of certain goods, rising or falling demand for certain items, availability or scarcity in the external market, and market rumors. The prisoners are placed in a bungalow that could hold about 200 people, and there were about eight bungalows in a compound, and there were many compounds, but prisoners could only interact with people in their own compound (p. 190). Development of Cigarettes and Food as a Currency A compound had prisoners from different countries such as France, England, the U.S., and people of Sikh origin who do not eat meat. It soon became evident that while the food parcels contained many items, some people liked or did not like certain items, and while Sikhs were ready to give away beef tins, they wanted jam or marmalade in return. This soon created some unmet demand since there were only a fixed number of chocolate bars or tins of jam, and deciding how much of one item was worth another created dissatisfaction. Market forces soon determined that there was one commodity that could be used as a currency, and that was cigarettes. Items such as bully, sugar, marmalade, and others started being quoted in terms of cigarettes (p. 191- 195). One cigarette issue was worth several chocolate issues; one tin of cheese was worth five cigarettes, a tin of salmon was worth 20 cigarettes, and so on. The French, who were housed in a different compound has set up a very active market that was very well organized, everyone knew the value of each item in terms of cigarettes, and they also knew who wanted a certain item and who was willing to sell. A number of middlemen who could broker a deal between two individuals also came up, and they received their fees in terms of cigarettes. The compound where the author was placed developed an exchange Trade Mart, and rates of different items were noted down. (p. 194). The value of certain items would change