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Trade and Transportation (1958)

1958 · Short film · 17 min

  • Documentary
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Synopsis

Presented by United World Films and distributed by United Education and Visual Arts, this 1958 black-and-white film, “The Way We Live,” takes a look at “Making a Living Around the World — Trade and Transportation.” The film opens on “Main Street” in any small town of the 1950s, with quaint grocery stores, hardware stores, clothing stores, cobblers, and bakeries. “When we want things others have to sell, we give them money,” the narrator explains at mark 1:22. “When we exchange money for things we need, we begin to understand the meaning of trade.” The film then launches into an explanation of how trade is carried out around the world. In Quebec, Canada, we are told, French-Canadian farmers take advantage of the rich farmland of the Saint Lawrence Valley and sell their product to businesses and families in the city, where some homeowners pay with cash and others pay using credit. At mark 04:25, the film travels to the Netherlands, where farmers use a series of canals as “water highways” to transport their produce to wholesale markets. Meanwhile, in China (at mark 07:27), we learn how sampans (flat-bottom wooden boats) are integral parts of trade. Other farmers walk with their goods to markets in Canton — sometimes a day’s journey — or carry their goods in carts. Due to a lack of refrigeration, markets are busy on a daily basis. “The housewife who buys fresh food will buy no more than her family can use in a single day,” we are told at mark 09:00. In the southeast Asian…

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Details

Running time
17 minutes
Collection
Ephemeral Films

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