What Does barter Mean
Barter is known as the exchange of goods and services for other goods and services without using money to complete the transaction . To access a barter, two parties must agree to a contract called a swap .
Barter appeared approximately 10 millennia ago, during the Neolithic Age, along with the first incursions of human beings into agriculture and livestock. Thanks to having left hunting, typical of the Palaeolithic, 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 to ensure the production of surplus constantly, so that all workers did not have to dedicate themselves to the same tasks.
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 from other sectors;
* Find commercial channels without having to change the client portfolio.
On the other hand, barter 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 are based on the market price;
* does not admit the participation of an intermediary, unless he is willing to work without receiving anything in return. This means that the contact must take place directly between the two interested parties;
* It is very likely that the exchange notably favors one of the two parties at the monetary level, since the barter is carried out for a need, often of an urgent nature.
Currently, and for some time now, barter is a very common resource during economic crises, especially when there is hyperinflation , 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 Bank of Time .
The Time Bank
It is a system that facilitates the exchange of services by time. According to its creators, the unit of money it uses is the hour , regardless of the service offered or received, since for the Bank of Time all skills are worth the same .
The services provided are many and very diverse: elderly care, company for medical consultations, language or computer courses, various repairs, help to decorate the house or to install appliances, cooking classes, physical training, transport for trips of various distances, translations, digitization of text documents ... And the list goes on.
Apart from the obvious benefits of bartering services, the Time Bank encourages relationships between strangers for productive purposes, demystifying the city's innumerable fears of strangers and enriching its users on a cultural and emotional level.