A Select Collection of Scarce and Valuable Tracts on Money
I.: Of Barter.
19th Century John Ramsay McCulloch (ed.) English- THE first commerce amongst men, was undoubtedly carried on by barter, or the exchange of one commodity for another; and indeed, this is the true and ultimate end of all commerce, whether foreign or domestic. But as men and arts increased, a mere barter of commodities became inconvenient, and insufficient, in abundance of instances. For it must needs frequently happen, that one man would want goods of another, that wanted none at the present, of those goods which he had to give him in exchange; and therefore to him, these goods would be but of small value; and it might be a tedious and intricate course, before the goods of the first man could be so often bartered, till at length they became exchanged into that particular commodity, which the second wanted. The same inconvenience would attend private bills, or promissory notes; for the note could not well be discharged, till the man who gave it, met with a customer, that had goods which suited him, to whom the said note had been given. Add to this, that contracts payable in goods were uncertain; for goods even of the same kind, differ in value. One horse is worth more than another horse: Wheat off one field, is better than wheat off another. Cows, horses, swine, &c. wheat, barley, oats, &c. might differ greatly in their value; a great disparity also would frequently happen, between artificial things of the same sort, as one workman excelled another. So that in this state of barter, besides the endless difficulties people were under to suit one another; there was no scale, or measure, by which the proportion of value which goods had to one another, could be ascertained.