An agent-based simulation model of a primitive agricultural society

The paper describes a model of an agricultural society in which agents live in a single settlement and use the surrounding area to produce essential and non-essential goods. Agents make, and attempt to fulfil, consumption and production plans but markets do not always clear and goods can change hands at different prices between different pairs of agents. The model generates a wide range of agricultural landscapes, including those of a classical von Thünen economy. Demographically, it produces outcomes varying from logistic growth to periodic collapse caused by cyclical famines.