[sauron]

Another thing to think about is that, if the farmer is busy BARTERING, that means he's wasting his time (where he never had to before) hauling small quantities of grain around town to buy a little this, a little of that. That's less time doing the thing he does so well--growing and harvesting and planting grain.

It also overlooks another pesky little problem: If the farmer is growing wheat...it's likely that ALL of his neighbors are doing...EXACTLY THE SAME THING. They'd choke on all that wheat they try to barter, because their neighbors are...uh...bartering wheat, too. The plumber and hardware store owner can only eat so much bread.

To shed all that barterable wheat, they'd need railroads. A functioning commodities exchange. A means of converting grain to a stable store of value (money).

[Errant]

[American Constitutionalist]

I put out that idea of bartering as a means to survive... no, it’s not a perfect way.