barter systems
Goods-for-goods commerce
Barter systems are economies or arrangements where goods and services are exchanged directly for other goods and services, without using money as an intermediary.
A farmer might trade eggs for a carpenter's labor, or a dentist might exchange dental work for accounting services.
Before currency existed, most trade happened through barter systems.
The term often appears in discussions of alternative economies or historical commerce.
- swap meetsInformal trading marketplaces
- exchangeMutual giving and receiving
- goods and servicesProducts and provided labor
- reciprocityMutual exchange of actions
- wampumIndigenous American bead currency
trade · mutual aid · cowrie shells · subsistence farming · haggling · local markets · interdependence · trust-building · fair trade · artisanal crafts · hand to hand · gift economy · trade fairs · transaction · medieval markets · trade routes · resource allocation · currency
- economic historystock market crash, Industrial Revolution, trade routes, Great Depression, gold standard
- informal economiesbartering, swap, trade networks, skill sharing, local currency
- mutual aidteamwork, helping, sharing, lending, cooperation
- heterodox economicspolitical economy, socialist economics, degrowth
- prehistorystone tools, Neolithic, Stone Age, caveman, cavemen
- tradetrade balance, free trade, trade barriers, customs, trade deficit
barter systemsgold standard
Measure of ultimate quality
cash economy · digital currency · banking systems · financial markets · electronic commerce
barter systemsbanking systems
Infrastructure for monetary transactions
market economies · mixed economies · stock markets · command economies · Wall Street