PRIMITIVE BARTER

Hokitika Guardian, 7 December 1932, Page 7

PRIMITIVE BARTER

REVERSION IN UNITED STATES

A MARKET WITHOUT ANY MONEY

NEW YORK, December 3

Paralysis of trade and lack of money are leading a number of communities in the United tSates to revert to primitive barter.

One of tlie most comprehensive efforts- to organise trading without cash was launched yesterday, by the town of Suffern, New York. A committee of leading residents —doctors, clergymen and other profesional men—opened a market where the use of money of any kind was forbidden and no middlemen were permitted. Hundreds of townspeople flocked to ‘ this open-air exchange, from the wealthiest to the poorest, and all day long in beautiful Indian summer weather men and women bartered goods and services direct as in the days before a monetary system was invented., Ducks, geese, chickens, turkeys, farm and garden produce of all kinds were exchanged for services and material.

A plasterer bartered his services for four fat ducks and some rabbits.

A plumber repaired a leak in return for a shoemaker mending his children’s boots.

■ Hungry: local painters gave their canvasses in exchange for sacks of potatoes.

One woman exchanged a goat for shingles to mend her roof. A grocer offered foodstuffs in return for getting his house painted. Cabbages were bartered for ducks, and so on.

Fifteen unemployed hired themselves out in return for stipulated quantities of food.