Barter

Barter is a system of exchange by which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. It is distinguishable from gift economies in that the reciprocal exchange is immediate and not delayed in time.

White Traders bartering with Indians

CONTENT : A - F , G - L , M - R , S - Z , See also , External links

A - F

• The original form of trade was barter trade, defined as the direct exchange of goods and services for other goods and services.
  • Atieno Ndede-Amadi, et al., in Business Studies Form 1 Pupil's Book, East African Publishers, p. 68

• Almost all of our relationships begin and most of them continue as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one or both parties run out of goods.
  • W. H. Auden, in Andy Zubko Treasury Of Spiritual Wisdom A Collection Of 10,000 Powerful Quotations For ..., Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 30 January 2003, p. 394

• Organisms sip energy, because they have to work or barter for every single bit that they get.
  • Janine Benyus, in Janine Benyus: Biomimicry in action: Talk Transcript, TED

• I utter in words my thanks to the Ruler of all, the King of Glory, the everlasting Lord, for the treasures which I here gaze upon, in that I have been allowed to win such things for my people before my day of death! Now that I have given my old life in barter for the hoard of treasure, do ye henceforth supply the people's needs, — I may stay here no longer. Bid the war-veterans raise a splendid barrow after the funeral fire, on a projection by the sea, which shall tower high on Hronesness as a memorial for my people, so that seafarers who urge their tall ships from afar over the spray of ocean shall thereafter call it Beowulf's barrow.
  • Beowulf, in The Tolkien fan's Medieval reader, Cold Spring Press, 6 April 2004, p. 56

• All exchange stimulates productive activity, whether exchange by gift, gambling, barter, or money transaction.
  • Aaron C. Brown, in Contents Foreword xi Preface xv CHAPTER 1 The Art of Uncalculated Risk 1, Savage MoneyNetworks

• All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.
  • Edmund Burke, in Burke, Select Works, Volume 1, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., 1 January 2005, p. 222

• And the foregoing of possessions for which others barter the last possibility of freedom will become easy.
  • Voltairine de Cleyre, in Peter Glassgold Anarchy!: An Anthology of Emma Goldman's Mother Earth, Counterpoint Press, 1 November 2012, p. 208

• I can smile with pity at the infidel whose vanity makes him dream that I should barter such a blessing for the few subtleties from the school of the cold-blooded sophists.
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in Mary Abby Thaxter Peloubet Select Notes on the International Lessons, Volume 7, W.A. Wilde & Company, 1880, p. 229

• It is my right to be uncommon. For I do not choose to be a common man, If I can, I seek opportunity. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the government look after me. I choose to take the calculated risk, to dream, to build, to fail or succeed. I choose not to barter incentive for a dole, I prefer the challenges of life to a guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the state calm of Utopia. I will not trade my freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout.
  • United States Congress, in Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the … Congress, Volume 114, Part 2, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968

• It is a clear truth that those who every day barter away other men's liberty will soon care little for their own.
  • Andrew Delbanco, in Writing New England: An Anthology from the Puritans to the Present, Harvard University Press, 2001, p. 267

• I confidently predict the collapse of capitalism and the beginning of history. Something will go wrong in the machinery that converts money into money, the banking system will collapse totally, and we will be left having to barter to stay alive. Those who can dig in their garden will have a better chance than the rest. I'll be all right I've got a few veg.
  • Margaret Drabble, in Quotes about Twentieth Century, Quotations Book, p. 3

• The bias against Israel has been institutionalized for 50 years, so to expect a miracle in 18 months is having unrealistic expectations. We should welcome the progress but realize that there is a long way to go, and Israel still has to bargain and barter to be recognized the way any other nation is.
  • Abraham H. Foxman, in U.N. Is Gradually Becoming More Hospitable to Israel, The New York Times, October 11, 2005

G - L

Scandinavian and Russian traders bartering their wares. Olaus Magnus, 1555

• They knew too well that he who accepts a truth because of the bribe, will soon barter it away to a higher bidder.
  • Emma Goldman, in Red Emma Speaks: An Emma Goldman Reader, Humanity Books, 1998, p. 238

• With all his learning and all his lore;
  And the Judge would have bartered Maud's fair face For more refinement and social...
  • Bret Harte, in The Poetical Works: Including the Drama of "The Two Men of Sandy Bar" of Bret Harte (Google eBook), Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1882, p. 267

• Chavez instituted a system of barter trade with Cuba which sent doctors to Venezuela in return for oil.
  • Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, in Can Globalization Promote Human Rights?, Penn

• This I know - if all men should take their troubles to the market to barter with their neighbors, not one, when he had seen the troubles of other men, but would be glad to carry his own home again.
  • Herodotus, in Veterinary pathology in Russia, 1860-1930, Cornell University Press, 31 May 1980, p. 218

• It recognizes charity and communal enterprises as voluntary versions of this same ethic. Such a system would be straight barter, except for the widely felt need for a division of labor in which men, voluntarily, accept value tokens such as cash.
  • Karl Hess, in Mostly on the Edge: An Autobiography, Prometheus Books, 1999, p. 322

• With the breakdown of money economy the practice of international barter is becoming prevalent.
  • John Maynard Keynes, in The Economic Consequences of the Peace, Indo-European Publishing, 2010, p. 39

• That for this We'll make a trade called "barter" I'll give you this for that That for this We'll have it made with without money there...
  • Pamela Klaffke, in Spree: A Cultural History of Shopping Arsenal Pulp Press (November 1, 2003), p. 9

M - R

• They stoop to pick up golden apples dropped from the tree of industry, and to barter truth, love, and honour for traffic in wool, beetroot-sugar, and potato spirits.
  • Karl Marx, in The Communist Manifesto in Plain and Simple English, BookCaps Study Guides, 2012, p. 93

• The dynamics of the economic exchange in capitalism are unique. In a barter system of economic activity a producer may grow a pound of potatoes and barter them for an equivalent amount ...
  • Thomson Nelson, in Thomson Nelson - Online Dictionary of the Social Sciences

• It is a clear truth that those who every day barter away other men's liberty will soon care little for their own.
  • James Otis, in Andrew Delbanco Writing New England: An Anthology from the Puritans to the Present, Harvard University Press, 2001, p. 267

• You may swell every expense, accumulate every assistance you can buy or borrow, traffic and barter with every little pitiful German prince that sells and sends his subjects to the shambles of a foreign prince ; your efforts are forever vain and impotent.
• William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham]], in George Bancroft History of the United States of America: From the Discovery of the ..., Volume 9, Little, Brown, 1875, p. 477

• Say to My servants who believe that they should keep up prayer and spend out of what We have given them secretly and openly before the coming of the day in which there shall be no bartering nor mutual befriending. (Abraham 14.31)
  • Quran, in Receive The Healing Word, Land of Wisdom

• O you who believe when you deal with each other in contracting a debt for a fixed time, then write it down and let a scribe write it down between you with fairness and the scribe should not refuse to write as Allah has taught him, so he should write and let him who owes the debt dictate, and he should be careful of (his duty to) Allah, his Lord, and not diminish anything from it but if he who owes the debt is unsound in understanding, or weak, or (if) he is not able to dictate himself, let his guardian dictate with fairness and call in to witness from among your men two witnesses but if there are not two men, then one man and two women from among those whom you choose to be witnesses, so that if one of the two errs, the second of the two may remind the other and the witnesses should not refuse when they are summoned and be not averse to writing it (whether it is) small or large, with the time of its falling due this is more equitable in the sight of Allah and assures greater accuracy in testimony, and the nearest (way) that you may not entertain doubts (afterwards), except when it is ready merchandise which you give and take among yourselves from hand to hand, then there is no blame on you in not writing it down and have witnesses when you barter with one another, and let no harm be done to the scribe or to the witness and if you do (it) then surely it will be a transgression in you, and be careful of (your duty) to Allah, Allah teaches you, and Allah knows all things.
  • Quran (Surah II, 282), in Qurʼān Al-hạkīm, TTQ, INC., 2002, p. 29

• We are not going to toy with our religion or any other. Nor are we going to barter. We are here to extend our hands to build peace and harmony.
  • Feisal Abdul Rauf, in Quran burning on again: Florida says may be., NBC News, 9 September 2010

• Our individuality is all, all, that we have. There are those who barter it for security, those who repress it for what they believe is the betterment of the whole society, but blessed in the twinkle of the morning star is the one who nurtures it and rides it in, in grace and love and wit, from peculiar station to peculiar station along life's bittersweet route.
  • Tom Robbins, in Jitterbug Perfume, Random House LLC, 17 June 2003, p. 245

• It is my right to be uncommon. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed.
  I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence the thrill of fulfillment to the stole calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence nor my dignity for a handout.
  It is my heritage to stand erect, proud, and unafraid to think and act for myself enjoy the benefits of my creations and to face the world boldly and say:
  With god’s help, this I have done.
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt, in H. S. Reed Find a Way to Make a Way!: You're Either Part of the Problem, Or You're Part ..., Tate Publishing, 2009, p. 24

S - Z

• She does not care the least what men may say, by way of trade and barter, that she is worth. Her worth in her own scales.
  • A. Hoosier Salad, in Recollections of Thomas R. Marshall, 1925

• Such happiness one wouldn't barter;
  Yet, oh, do you never regret
  The Springtide, the roses, Montmartre,
  Youth, poverty, love and -- Babette?
  • Robert William Service, in Ballads of a Bohemian, Barse & Hopkins, 1921, 306

• The propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another … is common to all men, and to be found in no other Race race of animals.
  • Adam Smith, in Wealth of Nations, Cosimo, Inc., 01 November 2007, p. 19

• BARTER
  Life has loveliness to sell—
  All beautiful and splendid things,
  Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
  Climbing fire that sways and sings,
  And children's faces looking up
  Holding wonder like a cup.
  Life has loveliness to sell -
  Music has a curve of gold,
  Scent of pine trees in the rain,
  Eyes that love you, arms that hold,
  And for your spirit’s still delight,
  Holy thoughts that star the night.
  Spend all you have for loveliness,
  Buy it and never count the cost.
  For one while singing hour of peace
  Count many a year of strife well lost,
  And for a breath of ecstasy
  Give all you have been or could be.
  • Sara Teasdale, in Murray Rockowitz, et al., GED(2007-2008)(14th Edition), Barron's Educational Series, 1 January 2007, p. 886

• The most simple of all trade, is that which is carried on by bartering the necessary articles of subsistence...draw from it his food, and the surplus will be the object of barter: he will give this in exchange to any one who will supply his other wants... and the more free hands are required, the more surplus food must be produced by additional labour, to supply their demand.
  • Paul Valéry, in Encyclopaedia Britannica or a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, A. Bell-C. Macfarquhar, 1771, p. 229

• If my love is without sacrifice, it is selfish. Such a love is barter, for there is exchange of love and devotion in return for something. It is conditional love.
  • J.P Vaswani, in How to Overcome Depression and other Heart-to-Heart Talks, Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd, 30 December 2011, p. 23

An 1874 newspaper illustration from Harper's Weekly, showing a man engaging in barter: offering chickens in exchange for his yearly newspaper subscription.

• I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia
  • Sam Walton, in Michael Bergdahl The 10 Rules of Sam Walton: Success Secrets for Remarkable Results, John Wiley & Sons, 17 December 2010, p. 41

• In a basic agricultural society, it's easy enough to swap five chickens for a new dress or to pay a schoolteacher with a goat and three sacks of rice. Barter works less well in a more advanced economy. The logistical challenges of using chickens to buy books on Amazon.com would be formidable.
  • Charles Wheelan, Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science, (2010), p. 218

• when we see a woman bartering her beauty for gold, we look upon such a one as no other than a common prostitute; but she who rewards the passion of some worthy youth with it, gains at the same time our approbation and esteem.
  • Xenophon, et al., in The Whole Works of Xenophon, T. Wardel, 1843, p. 535

• An intellectual hatred is the worst,
  So let her think opinions are accursed.
  Have I not seen the loveliest woman born
  Out of the mouth of Plenty's horn,
  Because of her opinionated mind
  Barter that horn and every good
  By quiet natures understood
  For an old bellows full of angry wind?
  • William Butler Yeats, in Louise Guinness, L Guinness Vintage Book Of Fathers, Random House, 29 February 2012, p. 18

• Have I not seen the loveliest woman born
  Out of mouth of Plenty's horn,
  Because of her opinionated mind
  Barter that horn and every good
  By quiet natures understood
  For an old bellows full of angry wind?
  • William Butler Yeats, in Jonathan Allison Yeats's Political Identities: Selected Essays, University of Michigan Press, 1996, p. 116

• Should have to pay, For the sins of the father so I barter my tomorrows against my yesterday’s In hopes that she will be OK.
  • Jay-Z, in Decoded, Random House, 14 December 2010, p. 233

See also

• Money
• Scarcity
• Trade