the.com/barterer
the original economist, pricing the world in chickens before money ruined the conversation.
means A barterer is someone who trades goods or services directly for other goods or services, without using money as the middleman.
from From "barter," which entered English in the late Middle Ages, likely from Old French "barater" — to bargain, exchange, or sometimes to cheat or haggle. That double meaning is telling: the same root that gave us honest swapping also hinted at the sharp dealing that comes with it. The "-er" is the plain English agent suffix, turning the act of bartering into the one who does it.
- older than coins
- Bartering predates currency by thousands of years
- coincidence problem
- Both traders must want what the other has
- prison economy
- Cigarettes became inmate currency for decades
- silent trade
- Ancient traders swapped goods without speaking a word
- still alive
- Recessions revive barter networks worldwide
jay stock — comedian who traded jokes for rent in new york city starting 2008
kyle macdonald — canadian who traded up from a red paperclip to a house in saskatchewan in 2006
the barter fair — annual gathering in olympia, washington where thousands exchange goods without money since 1974