clean water, food / ingredients, metals to make tools from, coal for short-term heating and to bake pottery / forge metal with, wood, other building matetials, simple machinery and tools to get industry up-and-running faster... you could also add materials for food preservation and storage, for clothesmaking, a few printing presses or electronic messaging equipment (like a pair of infrared high-bandwidth transceivers to connect the internet of two towns) to maintain communication lines and do recordskeeping. anything you use in quantity for basic needs (housing, food, work) and that is not pre-worked significantly. what it means in economic jargon is "common thing that can be used as barter", but i mean it in the sense of "life-essential goods / materials". stuff you can turn around and use to make more of similar or better stuff if you're friendly with your land, to become less dependent on trade and maintain your sovereignty. i'm not quite sure which people yours derive from - it looks to me to be the same as ours and the same as asians, but i'm yet to make sure - but i still wouldn't recommend copying any school system wholesale. i went to both a gymnaseum (for 12-18) and to a crappier school and while the gymnaseum was better, the thing where kids are made to spend 7+ hours a day 5 days a week listening to paid actors, sometimes a good distance away from home with little way to reach them if needed, is really gross, unnatural and setup for all kinds of power abuses.
Netherlands