Choosing a World History Exhibit: Silk Road or Steam
The Aomori Prefectural Museum has a 12 million yen exhibition budget and one 400-square-meter gallery. Two proposals compete. Proposal A, 'Silk Road Crossings,' features a reconstructed 8th-century caravan route, 60 artifacts, and a digital map; projected visitors 45,000, cost 11.5 million yen. Proposal B, 'Steam and Empire,' covers 19th-century industrialization and global trade, with 40 artifacts and a working model engine; projected visitors 38,000, cost 8 million yen. A visitor survey shows 52% prefer ancient trade, 31% prefer modern industry, and 17% are undecided; school groups request curriculum links to both. The gallery's climate control can hold 45% humidity, suitable for textiles but not for some metal objects in Proposal B without a 1.2 million yen case. The museum must also produce bilingual labels, costing 0.8 million yen for either show.
1. Calculate the total cost of each proposal including labels and any required case, and compare cost per projected visitor.
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Proposal A costs 11.5 million yen plus 0.8 million yen for labels, for 12.3 million yen. That is 0.3 million yen over the 12 million yen budget. Cost per projected visitor is 12.3 million divided by 45,000, or about 273 yen. Proposal B costs 8 million yen plus 0.8 million yen for labels plus 1.2 million yen for the humidity case, for 10.0 million yen. Cost per projected visitor is 10.0 million divided by 38,000, or about 263 yen. Proposal B fits the budget and has a slightly lower cost per visitor; Proposal A has higher demand but needs a funding adjustment.
2. Which proposal better fits the museum's constraints? Consider budget, climate, curriculum, and visitor demand.
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Proposal B fits the hard constraints better. It is 2.0 million yen under budget even after the required case, while Proposal A is over budget. The climate issue for B is solvable with the 1.2 million yen case, so it is not a fatal objection. Proposal A has stronger visitor demand, with 52% preferring ancient trade, and it may fit school requests for early world history. A defensible decision is to choose B and add a small Silk Road digital or loan component, or to choose A only if the museum cuts artifact costs or finds a sponsor for the 0.3 million yen gap. The museum should not ignore the survey, but it also cannot spend money it does not have.
3. Explain how each exhibit would help visitors understand a different type of long-distance exchange in world history.
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Proposal A shows exchange across Afro-Eurasia through caravans, luxury goods, technologies, and religious ideas. The reconstructed route and artifacts would help visitors see that the Silk Road was a network of intermediaries, not a single road. Proposal B shows a later industrial form of exchange: steam power, mass-produced textiles, empire, and global trade in raw materials. Its model engine and 19th-century objects would show how faster transport and factories changed the volume and direction of trade. Together the two proposals suggest a shift from high-value, low-volume luxury trade to bulk industrial trade. The exhibit label should make that comparison explicit.