As an experiment and for a video, I devised a computer simulation of free trading of wealth and energy using NetLogo's free Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) software. You can view an interactive model or download the NetLogo source code. A copy of this model also exists in the NetLogo media commons.

The goal was to create as fair a simulation as possible of a free market trading economy using a few simple parameters. These are:

• Each agent would start with the same amount of wealth and energy
• Each agent would have a randomly applied 'skill' attribute (of varying value, constrained to a maximum of double the lowest)
• Each agent would trade with a fixed number of randomly allocated 'customer' agents
• A trade would consist of selling a 'copy' of their skill, divided out and paid for equally among their customers
• Every trade would expend 1 unit of an agent's energy (regardless of value)