Audio chapter : Exposing the myth of barter

http://www.unwelcomeguests.net/archive/audiobooks/Debt,%20The%20First%205000%20Years/5000-debt-02-The-Myth-of-Barter.mp3

Exposing the myth of Barter : No example of a barter economy has ever been found in the actual day-to-day lives of the native people's economies or histories around the world as they were contacted by the "civilized" world's explorers one by one. Entirely different systems had evolved. Adam Smith and others who wrote the first books on economics, had written about barter being the "primary" system of exchange of early societies, entirely out of their (severely!) limited imagination. They never bothered cross-checking or referencing any real on-the-ground data, even though indigenous societies were being contacted at the time. The only instances of barter were between different tribes/communities who did not trust each other.

A chapter from Debt, The First 5000 Years by David Graeber, read by Robin Upton. http://www.unwelcomeguests.net/Category:Audiobooks

So all our textbooks that say "first, there was barter system, then came money".. aren't really sourcing their information from actual fact.

Everyone who talks about "reverting to barter system" isn't really speaking accurately. Barter systems came about only in modern times at places where the supply of money ran out and where the people were already accustomed to using money. Credit systems, keeping records to pay off later, has been much more prevalent than barter.

Let's start pointing this out to people, shall we? Please forward this link to economists, MBAs etc that you know.. ask them to show any historical evidence that points to the contrary of what is being said here.