I don't think "barter" actually implies on hand. It just means without money as an intermediary.
"I'll give you a defined amount of seed in the planting season and you'll give me a defined amount of wheat in the harvest season," is still barter. And that would be a form of debt.
I don't have 30 eggs today. I have 5. I'll have 30 by Friday.
I need the bolt of cloth from you today though. If I don't get it I can't make the eggs.
This is contrived, but you see how short term debt automatically must exist for barter to be actually successful?
A futures contract is the modern day abstraction of barter. I'll buy your corn harvest before you even plant it. In exchange you get all the money to actually grow the corn up front. This is just a debt contract.
Money is a proxy for barter. Instead of having to barter 300 eggs for a video game, you can sell them to the people raising cows and pigs.
Money is a proxy for debt.
No two bartering entities have exactly the right things for eachother at that moment.
Barter requires debt.
Genuine question: barter is trading what i have on hand for what you have on hand. How can debt even exist in that system?
I don't think "barter" actually implies on hand. It just means without money as an intermediary.
"I'll give you a defined amount of seed in the planting season and you'll give me a defined amount of wheat in the harvest season," is still barter. And that would be a form of debt.
I don't have 30 eggs today. I have 5. I'll have 30 by Friday.
I need the bolt of cloth from you today though. If I don't get it I can't make the eggs.
This is contrived, but you see how short term debt automatically must exist for barter to be actually successful?
A futures contract is the modern day abstraction of barter. I'll buy your corn harvest before you even plant it. In exchange you get all the money to actually grow the corn up front. This is just a debt contract.