Barter

Barter is a system of exchange in which two parties directly trade goods or services for one another without using money as an intermediary. Because a straightforward swap requires each side to happen to want what the other is offering, a problem economists call the double coincidence of wants, organized barter exchanges have developed as brokers that let members earn trade credits from one transaction and spend them in another rather than requiring an immediate one-to-one trade. Barter was long treated as humanity's original economic system that predated money, though some anthropologists, notably David Graeber, argue the historical evidence instead shows barter typically occurring between strangers rather than as the basis of ordinary exchange within communities. It resurfaces today mainly during currency crises such as hyperinflation, and through organized business-to-business exchanges that let companies move surplus inventory without spending cash.