Baseball Lesson Barter v/s Money Copyright © 2002 Glenna R. Shaw and FTC Publishing All Rights Reserved Grade 4

Blueprint Skill Recognize the difference between a barter system and a money system.

Question                                                        If you wanted to purchase some bread, would you trade the cashier a loaf of bread for your shoes? Of Course, NOT

You've probably never thought very much about money. It is just there You've probably never thought very much about money. It is just there. When you want or need something, you simply take some money and pay for it. That wasn't always the way things were done, before money was invented people used to swap things. This was called bartering.

To barter is to exchange goods without involving money. (to trade or swap)

At first, people used to do direct swaps for what they needed At first, people used to do direct swaps for what they needed. Supposing you had a lot of corn, but no meat, and the farmer down the road had a lot of meat but no corn. If that was the case then you could agree on a fair swap, and swap corn for meat. If you needed meat, but the farmer already had corn, he might not want any more corn, he may want something else, perhaps some eggs.

If you still wanted the meat, you would have to find someone who had too many eggs, and wanted some corn. Of course, this system meant that people spent all their days trying to find someone to swap with, and they weren't able to get anything else done. That was when people came up with a better idea.

Instead of a direct swap of one item for another people came up with the idea of using one thing to swap for everything else. This was the beginning of money.

                                                       Instead of a direct swap of one item for another people came up with the idea of using one thing to swap for everything else. This was the beginning of money.

Resources Franklin Institute How Money Began History of Money Pictures came from Kids Bank