Bartering system - is it an answer?

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31 Jul 2023

While almost all the World faces inflation and high bank rates troubles, in general facing the world crisis, I wonder if coming to the beginnings would be an answer… I mean a system based on exchanging goods for goods, called bartering.
Of course, I’m aware, that I didn’t invent anything new, and especially nowadays there are cultures within modern society that still rely on this type of exchange.
Bartering has been around for a very long time, I suppose, it appeared as soon as human cultures started to arise.
However, it's not necessarily something that an economy or society has relied solely on, this system has been used for centuries and long before money was invented.
As the number of people increased, they had to travel long distances to find food. They started forming groups. The members of each group stayed together while traveling and hunting, and they refrained from any interaction with other groups. Gradually, inter-group interaction started, and this paved way for the system of trading. After years of nomadic life, people started settling down in areas, where they began growing plants and raising farm animals. As cultivation and farming flourished, people started developing other skills too, and they started exchanging their goods for what they needed. This type of exchange was mainly done to fulfill basic needs, like food, clothes, etc.
The history of bartering dates back to 6000 BC. Introduced by Mesopotamia tribes, bartering was adopted by the Phoenicians. Phoenicians bartered goods to those located in various other cities across the oceans. Babylonians also developed an improved bartering system.
Goods were exchanged for food, tea, weapons, and spices. At times, human skulls were used as well. Salt was another popular item exchanged. Salt was so valuable that Roman soldiers' salaries were paid with it.
It seems like a perfect way of getting independence, everything you need, you can swap for goods you recently got for services that you can deliver… well, not exactly Despite all greatness of the barters system idea, it had a lot of deficiencies, hard to get.
The main thing is, transportation, it seems to be difficult to carry and use these materials, so traders wanted something that was not perishable and easy to carry, as a medium of exchange. This led to the use of metal pieces as money. It is believed that the first recognizable metal coins appeared in China, during 1000 B.C. However, the first minted coins are believed to be made in some regions of Turkey, like Lydia. Around 600 B.C. and this is, how the story of money begins (in short of course, I’d like to close it in the next articles).
A good explanation of the bartering system is introduced in this short movie:

However, when money was invented, bartering did not end, it became more organized and adapted to the times.
Every time, when the market (local, or even countries or world market) was facing a financial crisis, communities tried to come back to the barter system. For example: due to a lack of money, bartering became popular again in the 1930s during the Great Depression. It was used to obtain food and various other services. It was done through groups or between people who acted like banks. If any items were sold, the owner would receive credit and the buyer's account would be debited.
Nowadays, when the World is struggling with inflation, disruption of supply chains, and all kind of economic and logistic obstacles, maybe its time to return to the bartering system, and what will be advanced, there are many modern solutions, which will improve it a lot (see: cryptocurrency).
But it's an issue, I’d like to mention in my future articles.
I hope that you enjoyed this one,
see you next time!
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