Bartering

[bigpaul]

(22 May 2013, 18:23)Mooski88 Wrote: Yeah I have a lot of meds that are out of date including morphine. I refuse to throw them away. If I need them I will take them. When the STHF dates on stuff are gunna mean absolutely nothing. And when your in so much pain that morphine is needed you most likely won't care!

if someone is in that much pain that they need morphine, they've probably had it anyway.

[Mortblanc]

Bartering and trade is a normal course of human behavior. Trade centers and trade networks exist all the way back into the stone ages.

Do not expect trade and economics to stop just because SHTF.

The two universal trade items down through history have been alcohol and salt.

Writing was developed to preserve the beer recipes.

Counting was invented to keep up with the bar tab.

The first recorded battle of human history was over possession of a salt spring at a place in the middle east called Esalt.

Trade leads to wealth, wealth leads to power, power leads to domination.

If it is survival you seek, trade or die.

I know that those who wish for a return to the stone age do not want to face that, but the stone age people did not like their condition very much, so they left it behind without hesitation and took their produce, wool, sea shells and furs to trade them for metal knives, axes and the occasional Chinese motor scooter.

[bigpaul]

a person can survive without trading, post shtf the best prepping tool will be knowledge .with knowledge we can survive anything.

[Highlander]

Medicine was just an example,.. ok change the word medicine for any other item that you are going to badly need,... and there will be plenty

Trading has been going on since the year dot, if for some reason you dont think it will continue, then you really need to look a bit deeper into your preps,..I can understand one guy saying that he can go on indefinitely without help etc etc,... but if that one guy has family then why would any man not want to get the [ any ] badly needed supply for his family

bartering/trading will go on, no matter what any of us think,.. its human nature

[MaryN]

(22 May 2013, 19:54)Highlander Wrote: Medicine was just an example,.. ok change the word medicine for any other item that you are going to badly need,... and there will be plenty

Trading has been going on since the year dot, if for some reason you dont think it will continue, then you really need to look a bit deeper into your preps,..I can understand one guy saying that he can go on indefinitely without help etc etc,... but if that one guy has family then why would any man not want to get the [ any ] badly needed supply for his family

bartering/trading will go on, no matter what any of us think,.. its human nature

I could see trading posts being established, where people could go to swap/trade without revealing their place or situation. I'll see you one dozen eggs for, ooh, a pack of teabags...?

[Mortblanc]

Yep, and within a year after the apocalypse someone will have rigged up an pleasure boat with sails so they can make the run down the African coast to fetch some tea back for you!

You can count on it.

In my area we had not finished fighting the Native Americans off and were still living on subsistence agriculture and we were shipping whisky and rope 1500 miles down the rivers to New Orleans. My little area supplied much of the rope for your wind driven fleet.

England did not rule the waves just because they enjoyed the ocean breeze, they were bartering manufactured goods for raw materials world wide.

[bigpaul]

BS. total BS.

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trading will only happen if you have a SURPLUS of something, most people will only have enough to live on..for many years.

[Preppergirl]

Happened in Zimbabwe when the economy collapsed (inflation hit 90 sextillion percent !) and bartering is even still going on today after money has come back into play now barter networks have been established. Thing is knowing who to trust when bartering and try to barter a service or 'rent' a tool rather than lose something unless its a replenishable product. Never barter from home/your location and never show all your stuff. Remember a couple of good things - condoms and empty water bottles. http://preppergirluk.yolasite.com/barter...conomy.php

[Scythe13]

Whether BP wants to get involved in trade and bartering is up to him. But there are going to be some interested in it, some against the idea, some scared it's a return to preSHTF, and some whom do not trust being around people again.

Well, I for one, am interested in making a living as easily as possible. Turns out, merchants are able to do that, if they're smart enough and can run the system well enough.

As a result, I'm happy to barter.

Depending on what I have, what they want, and what's of highest perceived value, we may, or may not have a deal.

[Little Lou]

(23 May 2013, 08:34)bigpaul Wrote: trading will only happen if you have a SURPLUS of something, most people will only have enough to live on..for many years.

This is a fair point, but I can see circumstances when even an ordinary prepper might well have a surplus. For instance, I have two plum trees, any one of which produces more fruit at a time than I can eat, cook, bottle and preserve. I'd be delighted to give a neighbour a few pounds of plums in exchange for (say) some eggs from his chickens, of which I have none.

Scavenging might produce a surplus too. For instance, suppose I stumbled across an unlooted industrial building which stored lots of batteries. True, you can never have too many of these things, but I wouldn't want to sit on 5,000 AA batteries when my food supplies were running low. I'd certainly barter in that situation.

Or there's the unexpcted need that could come up. Shouldn't happen to a prepper, but it easily could to a newbie like me - or to anyone who's caught out by a new medical condition or a fire that destroys your whole fuel cache. For those eventualities I have barter currency of alcohol and cigarettes, which would save me trading away something I absolutely need to survive.

Ideally I agree that self-sufficiency is best, but for some it may not always be possible.