Creative Arts Solution

FOUNDATION

a non-governmental foundation

Barter

TRADE

WRITTEN BY: 

• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

See Article History

Alternative Titles: exchange, exchange economy

Barter, the direct exchange of goods or services—without an intervening medium of exchange or money—either according to established rates of exchange or by bargaining. It is considered the oldest form of commerce. Barter is common among traditional societies, particularly in those communities with some developed form of market. Goods may be bartered within a group as well as between groups, although gift exchange probably accounts for most intragroup trade, particularly in small and relatively simple societies. Where barter and gift exchange coexist, the simple barter of ordinary household items or food is distinguished from ceremonial exchange (such as a potlatch), which serves purposes other than purely economic ones.

Barter

QUICK FACTS

RELATED TOPICS

• Gift exchange
• Silent trade
• Trade

LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles:

• 
  Melanesian culture: Trade and exchange systems
  The regional trading systems of the islands around the eastern end of New Guinea were particularly elaborate.…
• 
  Russia: Economic reforms
  …many areas of Russia a barter economy emerged as both factories and workers tried to accommodate themselves…
• 
  coin: Origins of coins
  …have derived originally from the barter of cattle, implements, and the like. The earliest currency of…