Bartering involves the exchange of services or products.
The exchange of goods and services for other goods and services without money being used to complete the transaction is known as barter . To agree to a barter, two parties must agree to a contract called a barter .
Barter appeared approximately 10 millennia ago, during the Neolithic, along with the first forays of humans into agriculture and livestock. Thanks to having left hunting behind, typical of the Paleolithic, to become a productive species, man began to enjoy a surplus in his food, a percentage that was not necessary to consume immediately.
The surplus allowed people to dedicate their time to creating various products , such as ornaments and ceramic bowls, which they could exchange with ranchers and farmers. Something that from today's perspective seems so simple and so natural, changed the lives of our ancestors, giving rise to private property and wealth , which was directly proportional to the amount of excess production.
The concept of division of labor also began to develop, for which an organization was necessary that ensured the production of surplus constantly, so that all workers did not have to dedicate themselves to the same tasks.
Benefits of bartering
Among its advantages, it can be said that barter allows:
* buy goods and services without using money;
* maintain the monetary capital of a company;
* Maximize the finances of a business;
* increase productivity;
* obtain more commercial relationships with companies in other sectors;
* Find commercial channels without having to change the client portfolio.
Some disadvantages
On the other hand, bartering has the following disadvantages:
* it is not always easy, or possible, to find someone who wants the product or service we offer for exchange;
* ambiguity regarding the monetary value of the goods or services being exchanged makes the decision difficult, even though the parties rely on the market price;
* does not allow the participation of an intermediary, unless they are willing to work without receiving anything in return. This means that contact must occur directly between the two interested parties;
* It is very likely that the exchange significantly favors one of the two parties on a monetary level, given that the barter is carried out for a need, often of an urgent nature.
The Time Bank is an initiative that modernized barter.
Barter today
Currently, and for some time now, bartering is a very common resource during economic crises, especially when hyperinflation occurs, since the currency loses its value considerably.
Through the Internet it is possible to find various sites that offer their users tools to exchange goods and services; One of the best-known examples internationally is the Time Bank .
The Time Bank
It is a system that facilitates the exchange of services for time. According to its creators, the unit of money it uses is the hour , regardless of the service offered or received, since for the Time Bank all skills are worth the same .
The services provided are many and very diverse: care for the elderly, company for medical consultations, language or computer courses, various repairs, help decorating the house or installing appliances, cooking classes, physical training, transportation for trips of various distances, translations, digitization of text documents... And the list goes on.
Outside of the obvious benefits of bartering services, the Time Bank encourages relationships between strangers for productive purposes, demystifying the city's countless fears regarding strangers and enriching its users on a cultural and emotional level.