In the capitalist society we live in, where lately living costs have exploded through the roof, younger generations have taken a few steps back — several millennia back — and have reinvented trade culture.
I’ve noticed this pattern is prominent among artists and skilled labourers in particular, those who fall into indie and liberal circles. Within these groups, stick and poke tattoos are redeemable for haircuts. Instead of a price placed on these services, both parties benefit from the exchange. These interactions mostly take place informally via Instagram stories of some of my favourite independent creatives I follow, making unexpected offers and requests for this and that. Some of my favourites I’ve seen include trading a tattoo for a beautifully varnished mahogany dresser, and a hand-knit blue wool beanie for a film photoshoot. These trades challenge and bend the prices our culture might have assigned to these items, but so long as everyone’s happy, what’s the harm?
This is bartering in its purest form, exchanging goods and services directly without the exchange of currency. Bartering predates the use of money as a primary medium of exchange, effectively skipping the middleman and eliminating the opportunity for a third party to profit at the expense of those obtaining goods and services.
I find this phenomenon so enchanting and refreshing because not only do I feel whisked away to an era of early civilization on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, but it’s also a radical shift away from the over-consumerism and trend cycling that fuels less than humane labour practices. Instead, it’s a reversion to emphasising the value in the handmade and to valuing the people who make it happen.
For many creatives and craftsmen, we live in a world where art isn’t very profitable, labelled as too expensive with cheaper options available on the market made by machines or effective slave labour. I can see the appeal for developing communities where skills become currency and a way to support a lifestyle, not in the way capitalism would imagine. The reality is there is so much more value to these skills than we give these people credit for. It’s our attitudes that need a serious overhaul. This revival of trade culture is young people attempting to cope with a deeply flawed capitalist system that’s been passed down to them, a system that has gotten out of hand.
I’ve read my Marx. I know why we can’t just “print more money”. I know it sounds unrealistic to operate at a global scale, but a resurgence of trade allows artists to seize control over their commodities, whether that be a service or a physical good, and in turn profit from their labour in the way that serves them. The main challenge to large scale barter is that this system thrives in communities and requires proximity to pull it off. Shifting the focus back to community-based living would lift up all people living there. Barter today thrives in like-minded communities and people who see value in similar things. For example, I bet there is a thriving barter scene in Brooklyn and the ‘artistic’ neighbourhoods of every city, really. They’re probably thinking they’ve stumbled upon a new way of life not realising it is actually a shift back to some of humanity’s earliest years.
I realise I may be both naive and utterly optimistic, dreaming of a simple, self-sufficient, and sustainable lifestyle, growing our own food and keeping things local. Think walkable cities, farmers markets, and knitting your own sweaters. One day will we be able to source all of our food through trade? As living costs offer no promise to slow down anytime soon, what other forms of commerce will we develop or borrow from history? Next time you want something from someone and if you think you have something to offer, try asking them to trade.