And How It Affects the Socio-Economy of a Country
Remember back in school when kids would swap juice boxes for chips, or cookies for candy? Even children have an innate sense that the comparable value of cookies to candy is in the eye of the beholder. To the kid who gets cookies every day, the elusive cream-filled cake treat is worth more than a few, and he realizes his friend might feel differently. Trading goods and services without the use of money is called bartering. With the advent of money-based system, barter system has becoming more toward a necessity. However in time of need, this necessity has complicated procedure in order to perform it. Due to economic factor, barter system is impractical and it can become a leading source to economic downpour but however barter system can also become an attractive alternative in economy declination.
Historically, bartering activities dated back centuries ago and was quite useful after humans dropped their nomadic ways and settled down to farming and started to live in communities. It is also traditionally common among people with no access to a cash economy, in societies where no monetary system exists, or in economies suffering from a very unstable currency (as when very high rates of inflation hit) or a lack of currency. In these societies, bartering oftentimes has become a necessary means of survival. Through bartering, people foster bond and relationship and in most cultures, barter system was used before money was created and immensely popular in trading. Explorers, merchants, pilgrims, and traders will bargain for specific items that they want. This occurs frequently in the medieval trade route such as the ancient Silk Route, which led from China to the Mediterranean and the spice trade in the Incense Route (Bellerby, 2008). Goods such as food, spice, cloth, raw material, art craft and others are goods that were bartered on those days.
First and foremost, barter system is