Barter
the exchange of one kind of property for another without the use of money. The exchange of eggs for groceries is barter. Swapping jacknives or trading horses would hardly be called barter. Among primitive peoples, barter is the only form of exchange known. One who has a fish may give it to another in exchange for fruit. In his travels Dr. Livingstone speaks of a village tree on the branches of which the natives hung any article for which they had no immediate use. Each was at liberty to take away any article that he considered of equivalent value. John Smith bartered beads to the American Indians for corn. At the present time, barter is the only way of dealing with the natives of many parts of Africa who have no use for money. The great fur companies of the northwest built up their business by a system of barter. Guns, ammunition, knives, ribbons, beads, looking glasses, axes, and many other articles were transported at great expense to the trading posts where they were bartered for furs. A gun had its price, not in money, but in so many beaver skins. Country stores still do a great deal of bartering. Traders among the American Indians exchange goods for various roots, fruits, furs, oil, rice, and other articles brought in by the Indians for that purpose.
A recent consular report speaks as follows of barter of native products for manufactured goods in Liberia, Africa:
Currency is absent from this section. The natives bring their products--coffee, palm oil, palm kernels, palm wine, kasada, starch, piassava, ivory, skins, venison, camwood, rubber, beeswax, honey, gold, precious stones, sheep, goats, cattle, ginger, kola nuts, and other things--and for these they get from the merchant cloth, salt, tobacco, pipes, gin, cutlasses, brass kettles, iron pots, trinkets, beads, handkerchiefs, powder, caps, shot, stockfish, looking glasses, combs, Florida water, and other commodities, all of which are bartered at large profit. For instance, cloth purchased in England at 3 to 5 cents a yard is sold in trade for 24 cents.