Barter is a commodity exchange, a natural exchange, a barter - there are many synonyms for this term. Any person begins to use barter from childhood, when, for example, he changes his toy to someone else's. By the way, in-kind exchange appeared much earlier than money. So let's find out what barter is?
Story
The intensification of exchange operations began during economic reforms, and reached its climax just during the 1999 crisis. In 1992-1994, due to ill-conceived inflationary measures in the private sector, a financial deficit appeared, which in the next two years reached enormous proportions. It was then that the government learned what barter is, the scale of which was so phenomenal that it distinguished Russia on the world stage among the countries with economies in transition. Let's reveal the features of the barter of the 90s.
Differences between barter of the 90s from the modern
1. Within certain sectors, barter operations were monopolized, which did not promote free competition and forced enterprises to make an exchange that was not beneficial for them.
2. The lack of financial resources contributed to the activation of exchange processes between companies.
3. High inflation, due to which enterprises had additional risks in cash settlements, stimulated the barter of goods and exchange transactions in general.
4. Due to the high criminalization in the 90s, counterparties to transactions very often did not comply with the agreements. Therefore, in the course of barter payments, enterprises incurred additional expenses for liquidation of losses.
Spread
Now the key condition for the spread of barter is an increase in business activity with an acute shortage of settlement funds. And currently there are all prerequisites for this. However, funds to finance the private sector are still available. Despite the fact that regional authorities lobby the interests of the main monopolists in their financial disputes with supplier creditors, the funds allocated by the state to support the main debtors are gradually reaching small and medium-sized enterprises. So the heads of companies do not even think about what barter is. Indeed, the monetization of the modern economy allows firms to do without it.
Emotional assessment
So, we found out what barter is. Finally, I want to say about the meaninglessness of a negative or positive assessment of this term. Barter is an objective phenomenon and does not depend on any estimates. It is always present in the economy as an alternative form of calculation, especially intensified during times of economic downturn. A massive transition to barter, the significance of which is considered in this article, will occur only if the market is fully prepared for this event. According to experts, the modern market has a good degree of readiness, but only time will tell how true this is. In any case, the coming end of the economic downturn will not entail the complete disappearance of barter.