Saturday 28 April 2012

A picture of commerce

Fleeming Jenkin illustrated barter exchange as a rather beautiful dance.

 Barter_jenkin_right_1

And here's a picture of one step of the commerce dance, in an international monetary economy: the production of a laptop computer.



Somebody ought to make a Sourcemap for a pencil.

6 comments:

  1. Of course the idea of a barter economy as taught by economics is a complete myth.

    Interview with David Graeber

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    1. I'm a fan of Menger on the origins of money....

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    2. Well I'll go away and read his essay. But to me it makes sense that credit existed well before any circulating 'token' of money. I thought David Graeber was quite insightful in the way he outlines how government/markets are essentially interdependant, contrast with the mainstream discussion today where it seems to be portrayed as govt v market.

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    3. Listening to the interview now; thanks for it. Damned interesting. The paperback's now on pre-order from Book Depository.

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    4. Yes I think I'll have to put the book on my list too.

      Made a few pennies drop for me as to what debt is, and although I haven't read too much libertarian stuff, it doesn't seem incompatible.

      The first youtube interview I found of this guy was "Conversations w/ Great Minds - Dr. David Graeber Debt", although I think the interview link above covers most of the material.

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  2. where New Zealand on this uplift graph dude.
    graph inadequate, I thought we uplift from those Russian and Thai girls.

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