Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1933-04-28
Considering Organization
OF Exchanges For Barter
In North Carolina, A Certain
Amount OF Barter Exchange
Has Been Done By Farmers
Organization At Dun
ham Perfected

by Sheldon L. Clement, Research
Assistant, Department of Agricul-
tural Economics, North Carolina
State College.)
During these days when money
is lacking, much discussion is heard
concerning the revival of barter,
which is designed to facilitate the
exchange of commodities and ser
vices without the use of regular
money. A writer in The New York
Times recently stated hat a mil
lion persons in more than 800 COM
munities in almost 40 states are
engaged in some form of Barter.
At first this barter was accom-
plished without the aid of any or
sanization-two persons CHANGING
TO learn that each had something
to spare which the other needed,
made an exchange. Later it was
found that the organization of bar
ter exchanges, With places where
farmers and others might bring
produce or services to offer for ex-
change, made possible many more
exchanges. Consequently such ex-
changes have been organized in
many communities throughout the
United States.
IN North Carolina there has been
comparatively little organized bar
1e-, although the question of or
sanizing barter exchanges in the
state is being given consideration.
\ certain mount of direct exchan-
&c has been accomplished by coun-
" agents of the College Extension
service and through the advertising
columns of the Agricultural Re-
view, published by the State De-
oartment of Agriculture. In Dur
ham, there was recently organized
the Labor and Materials Exchange,
IN organization for the unemploy-
ID under the direction Of DR.. N. 1.
White. In its advertisement, this
exchange offers services of. an en-
ployment bureau, a barter exchan-
sc, a sewing room, a registered
nurse,and a public reading room.
Membership in the employment
bureau is reported to number over
200, covering practically every
branch of skill"
Barter, in the strict sense, means
the exchange of one article for an
other without the use of any me-
dunn of exchange. Such transac-
tons are necessarily cumbersome
and awkward, and subject to a
number of difficulties. If the or
~sanization sponsoring the barter of
goods attempts to find two persons,
each having what the other wants,
ii faces the double difficulty of
finding, for example, a man with a
cow who wants a plow and a man
with a plow who wants a COW, and
then trying to determine the exact
ratio of exchange between the two.
Il it is agreed that two cows should
exchange for three plows, no trade
will be possible except in these
numbers, or multiples of them,
since it is not practicable to divide
a COW into two parts and a plow
into three. 1t is also difficult to
keep in mind exchange ratios for a
large number Of articles in terms of
a large number of other articles.
Most of the we'll organized BART
er exchanges have attempted to
eliminate these difficulties by intro
duclng a medium of exchange usu-
ally referred to as scrip. This scrip
consists simply of certificates of
credit issued by the exchange, usu-
ally in denominations of Sc, 10c,
2}c, soc, 81, and IS, to members,
OF the group in return for goods OF
services. As a rule it is not back
60 by gold or other securities than
5he labor and products of the
Drn1n