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History of Barter System

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History of Barter System
Barter system

Barter system is an age-old method that was adopted by people to exchange their services and goods. This system was used for centuries, before the invention of money. People used to exchange the goods or services for other goods or services in return. Nowadays, barter services has staged a comeback with the advent of more sophisticated techniques that aid trading through the Internet. During ancient times, barter system was a local phenomenon, which involved people in the same locality. However, today barter system has become global. You can now negotiate with the opposite party, regarding the value of the item you want to barter and vice versa. The advantage of bartering is that it does not involve money. You can buy an item in exchange for some other thing you current .The barter system was one of the earliest forms of trading. History of barter system It facilitated exchange of goods and services, as money was not invented in those times. The history of bartering can be traced back to 6000 BC. It is believed that barter system was introduced by the tribes of Mesopotamia. This system was then adopted by the Phoenicians, who bartered their goods to people in other cities located across the oceans. An improved system of bartering was developed in Babylonia too. People used to exchange their goods for weapons, tea, spices, and food items. Sometimes, even human skulls were used for barter. Another popular item used for exchange was salt. Salt was so valuable at that time, that the salary of Roman soldiers was paid in salt. The main drawback of this system was that there was no standard criteria to determine the value of goods and services, and this resulted in disputes and clashes. These problems were sorted out with the invention of money, but the barter system continued to exist in some form or another.

The Europeans started traveling across the globe during the Middle Ages and used barter services to trade

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