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{{a|banking|}}{{d|Barter|/ˈbɑːtə/|n., v|}}In the absence of a common framework for exchange of abstract value, the exchange of one good for another. | {{a|banking|}}{{d|Barter|/ˈbɑːtə/|n., v|}}In the absence of a common framework for exchange of abstract value, the exchange of one good for another. | ||
In a particularly entertaining passage | In a particularly entertaining passage of his particularly entertaining book, {{br|Debt: The First 5,000 Years}}, the late {{author|David Graeber}} addresses the commonplace wisdom that fiat currency grew out of a system of barter between “savages”. | ||
Not only, says Graeber, is the necessary “double coincidence of needs” that barter implies implausible — you want loaves, which I happen to bake, and I want barrels, which you happen to make<ref>This strikes me as a ''single'' coincidence, but still.</ref> — but the anthropological record — Graeber was an anthropologist, so well placed to know — shows no evidence that barter ever happened at scale, at least not within communities with any level of trust or familiarity. The idea that money grew from barter is imaginary, the product of the colourful metaphors of Aristotle, Adam Smith and others. | Not only, says Graeber, is the necessary “double coincidence of needs” that barter implies implausible — you want loaves, which I happen to bake, and I want barrels, which you happen to make<ref>This strikes me as a ''single'' coincidence, but still.</ref> — but the anthropological record — Graeber was an anthropologist, so well placed to know — shows no evidence that barter ever happened at scale, at least not within communities with any level of trust or familiarity. The idea that money grew from barter is imaginary, the product of the colourful metaphors of Aristotle, Adam Smith and others. | ||