‹ TaxationStart path ›
Barter. The deal before money.
Front
Money SenseGL-00002
Barter
The deal before money
Swapping one thing directly for another, with no money in between.
GeekLibraryMechanism
Back
GL-00002Mechanism
Barter works between two people. Scale it to a village of fifty and you need 1,225 trading pairs, each hoping the other wants what they have. Money was not invented because barter failed. It was invented because barter could not scale.
- The problem has a name: the double coincidence of wants. Both sides must want what the other has, at the same time.
- Next time you swap something with a friend, you are doing the oldest deal in history.
SourceJevons, Money and the Mechanism of Exchange (1875), Ch. 1
Keep exploring
Because you read Barter.
Money SenseGL-00001
Money
The story everyone believes
Anything a group of people agree to accept in exchange for things.
GeekLibraryMechanism
Money SenseGL-00013
Taxation
The membership fee for everything shared
A share of what people earn and spend, collected to pay for shared things.
GeekLibraryMechanism
Money SenseGL-00003
Inflation
The tax on your piggy bank
The slow loss of what money can buy, year after year.
GeekLibraryMechanism
Read as a path · 7 cards · 4 min
Understanding MoneyA short journey through the ideas behind everyday money.