Poleconomy

Poleconomy

Publishers	Tanner Couch; World Games
Players	2–6
Setup time	5–10 minutes
Playing time	About 3 hours
Chance	Medium (dice rolling, card drawing, luck)
Age range	8–adult
Skills	Simple mathematics such as counting, finding percentages and multiplication, economics, governmental procedure, social skills, negotiation

Poleconomy is a board game invented by New Zealander Bruce E. Hatherley and first published in 1980. It is similar to Monopoly but the board is divided into companies rather than properties. Players compete to acquire properties and investments through stylized economic and political activity. The playing time is set by agreement from all players, eg. 2 hours, and the winner is determined by the monetary sum of all player cash, companies, insurance or other assets. Another objective of the game is "to teach players some of the fundamentals of economics, and the ways in which the economy and the government interact." Different editions were published for several different countries. The name Poleconomy is a portmanteau of "politics" and "economy".

History

Poleconomy was invented by Bruce Hatherley, a New Zealander from Christchurch who was living in Sydney at the time. He first filed a US patent claim for it in January 1981. It was published in 1980, first in an Australian edition, then a New Zealand edition. The New Zealand edition was produced by Tanner Couch and Robyn Larsen sold the squares on the board as advertising space to the actual companies represented. The New Zealand Stock Exchange was involved with the launch in Auckland. It was also published by World Games.

Hatherley contacted Canadian think tank the Fraser Institute to help introduce the game to Canada in 1983. Michael Walker, an employee of the Institute, sold the first squares as advertising and the rest were sold by stock brokers, who had little other work because of a recession at the time. More than a million dollars was raised by the Institute and Poleconomy was credited with helping the Institute survive the recession.

It was later sold in South Africa and the United Kingdom in other localised versions. More than 1.5 million copies of Poleconomy have been sold internationally, incorporating the participation of 260 major corporate sponsors who leased advertising space in the separate national versions. US patent 4,522,407 was granted for the game in 1985.

The game

Players compete to acquire properties and investments through stylized economic and political activity. This involves the purchase of real-world companies and advertising using artificial money. The players take turns moving around the board via the roll of the dice, landing on the gameboard squares and carrying out instruction according to the square's contents or player decision.

The game is unusual in its mirroring of real-world businesses for which it has licenses to use their trademarks. It also illustrates how political events such as government decisions and taxation affect the economy. The players take turns at being the Prime Minister or President through elections. Once in power they have the ability to dictate the levels of inflation and so increasing or decreasing rents for property owners. If a player cannot cover their rent, the debt is written off and they can continue, receiving a government salary; no-one becomes bankrupt. According to the rules the game ends when the central bank runs out of money.

Enterprise Australia sponsored the game to "improve understanding of the free enterprise system" among schoolchildren, and sold over 100,000 copies. The introduction to the rules of the New Zealand version quotes Enterprise New Zealand, "The game reflects the way industry, finance and government interact when private enterprise operates within a system of parliamentary democracy."

Companies featured in the game

Australian Edition (1st)		New Zealand Edition		Canadian Edition
Company	Advertising	Company	Advertising	Company	Publicite
Boral	The Australian	DRG	Permaglide	Crane	Pentax
Bradmill	Australian Associated Stock Exchanges	Mitsubishi Forklifts	Sellotape	I.P. Sharp Associates	Global Television Network
CIG	Australia Post	Armourguard	Pakatoa Island	Bombardier	Central Trust
Clyde Industries	Breville	Anchor	Nylex [1]	Molson	Iona
CRA	Controll-A-Door B & D Roll-A-Doors	Mount Cook Line	Decrabond	William Mercer Limited	Avco Financial Services
EWA Erik White Associates	Dulux	Van Camp	Amalgamated Marketing Ltd	Allied Van Lines Limited	Edmonton Oilers
George Pattersons	EAC Estate Agents Cooperative	Tux	Air New Zealand	Penmans Canada	Wynn's
H C Sleight Limited	Holden	NZ Forest Products	Team McMillan Ford	Maple Leaf Mills	Loblaws Companies Limited
IBM	Hoyts	Europa	Stewart Wrightson Ltd	Kaufman Footwear	Lepage
ICI	Kodak (Australasia) Pty. Ltd.	Hallmark	Pizza Hut	Dynamic Funds	Teleglobe Canada
John Sands	Lady Scott	Hertz	Kiwi Bacon	Fraser Institute	Cheerios
Kinnears	Newsweek	IBM	Dulux	Midland Bank Canada	Caldwell Luxury Towels
Monier Limited	OPSM	ICI	Marac	Kraft	Golden
Nylex	Pal	NZIG	Mitre 10	Delta Hotels	Actualite Newsmagazine
Olympic	Patra Fruit Juices	Watties	Heylen Research Centre	Neilson	Texmode Fashion Sheets
Pioneer	Reed Stenhouse	Whitcoulls	Choysa	Dow Chemical Canada	Scott
STC	Seppelt	Reidrubber	Amco		Victor
TNT	Singapore Airlines	Donaghys	Hylin Laundry Services		CP Air
Union Carbide	Skipper a Glipper	Lucas Service	Ralta		Ikea
Wormald International	Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation	Winstone	Atlantic and Pacific travel		Esso
	Streets		Network consultants		David Ingram's CENTRA
	TAA		GSI
	Telecom Australia Go Telex		Northern United Building Society
	Telecom Australia Phone STD Off-Peak		NZSE
	Vulcan		Heylen Research Centre
			New Zealand Times

External links

• Poleconomy Rules