Everything has its price - and if that price is not paid, not that thing but something else is obtained... it is impossible to get anything without this price.
Since nothing is free, to each his price.
People are always trading their excess for somebody else's excess. One country has a lot of aluminum so they trade aluminum for sugar. It's the law of supply and demand.
Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value.
Trade is a social act.
Every man lives by exchanging.
I have made no distinction between the circulation of goods and of money, because there really is none.
There was free trade in Africa. There was free enterprise in Africa before the colonialists came.
At Newfoundland, it is said, that dried cod performs the office of money
Instead of studying how to make it worth men's while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them.
Money does not pay for anything, never has, never will. It is an economic axiom as old as the hills that goods and services can be paid for only with goods and services.
If a man were living in isolation his income would be literally his product. Make him the monarch and owner of an island, and the fruits that he raises and the clothing that he makes constitute, in themselves, his income. This ceases to be true when trading begins.
When goods are exchanged between countries, they must be paid for by commodities or gold. They cannot be paid for by the notes, certificates, and checks of the purchaser's country, since these are of value only in the country of issue.
My sister is a masseuse, so we trade - she gives me massages and I give her prepared meals. It's a great system I'd recommend: Cook or babysit for a friend in exchange for one of her skills.
The best substitute for money is ingenuity.
Money is the representative of a certain quantity of corn or other commodity. It is so much warmth, so much bread.
In nature nothing can be given. All things are sold.
In those days, there was no money to buy books.
Hence money may be dirt, although dirt is not money.
The history of commerce is that of the communication of the people.
Money is only important in a society when certain resources for survival must be rationed and the people accept money as an exchange medium for the scarce resources. Money is a social convention, an agreement if you will. It is neither a natural resource nor does it represent one. It is not necessary for survival unless we have been conditioned to accept it as such.
Self-interest leads to honing your skills, the better to trade with.
Chico: "Here's the book, it's a dollar" Groucho: "Here's a ten, and shoot the change." Chico: "I don't have change I'd have to give you nine more books.
I don't call them sacrifices. I call them exchanges.
You shouldn't be able to be alive and you are. You want to trade?
