What to trade during a depression or collapse

I have a question:

What items do you think would be good to have in access to trade with others during a national or financial colapse? Lessons learned from the US great depression?

For example, I'd think flour, sugar, vinegar and/or salt would be good to have to trade with others for food and items. Money should be of little use, so I am thinking of making a stash of commodities.

What do you think would be good to have that doesn't perish easily or at all, easy to store, doesn't take much room - that you can use to barter?

(mod edit: Title spelling correction)

[edit on 8/22/2007 by thelibra]

Spices, black pepper being one of the best. Good knives, hatchets, axes, livestock, seeds...the list goes on.

Where I come from some smack and blow would keep the thugs satisfied and friendly, I hope. Personally, I'd appreciate paracetamol for the kids, (miracle when there's a fever) , loads of stock cubes for when we're running out of food, (a bit of flavour to keep spirits up) and loads of sanitary towels & stuff. And everything Jimragan said.

toilet pape, salt spices of all kinds espcially salt because of the many uses in food storing and preperation. but mainly toilet paper also sowing supplies. no money to buy new cloths you need to repair what you have.

sex, food, and gold is all it takes. You can survive and there will always be need for it all.

Don't forget your coffee and cigarettes!

There are a lot of people like me that NEED those things.

I saw an ad on the net once it said learn the 5 things that are better than gold in a survival situation. THis was some sort of ad where you buy the report. Sorry but I try to keep as much of my money as possible.

personally I'm concentrating on these 5

1+ years long term food storage
variuos basic survival kits
Weapons and ammunition
liquor, I think this would be a huge barter tool
variuos other items for barter salt, fuel, oil, toilet paper, basically anything listed above or part of the above in larger quantities.

make a still...
everybody needs vodka.

Yep, a book I read on surviving an economic collapse named cigarette, liquor, and chocolate as some of the most powerful bartering tools in a trade economy, I personally have no need for any of these vise's but to those who are bound by them they indeed could become gold in the right situation.

reply to post by godservant
From my "bush" experience here they are in decreasing importance: Fresh vegetables, fresh meats, gadgets of every sort (eg. chainsaws and 4 wheelers, gasoline, firearms, communications device (used to be radios, now cellphones), ammunitions, clothes, medicines, and beer. Where you are makes a big difference.

Originally posted by plumranch
reply to post by godservant

 

From my "bush" experience here they are in decreasing importance: Fresh vegetables, fresh meats, gadgets of every sort (eg. chainsaws and 4 wheelers, gasoline, firearms, communications device (used to be radios, now cellphones), ammunitions, clothes, medicines, and beer. Where you are makes a big difference.

According to your list, I would be a very rich man if the economy goes belly up.

Skills are an excellent bartering tool. The ability to build shelters, the ability to work with computers, the ability to garden (yes, some cannot), the ability to distill, the ability to hunt, the ability to collect water.

Make yourself as valuable as possible by becoming self-proficient. Then you can barter for the tangibles that you will no doubt run out of.

I'd say sugar and salt, then other spices. Practical survival items and food, too.

It's only been mentioned once, I too would stress cigarettes, ammunition, and precious metals.

Skills are an excellent bartering tool. The ability to build shelters, the ability to work with

reply to post by titian
Hi Titian,
You're right, skills are the most important plus perhaps the will to use them, the enthusiam to win in the end, etc. and what I forgot to list were... TOOLS. That would include metal working tools, wood working, soil working, surgical and etc. The tools to rebuild your local civilization. IMHO civilization is good! Thanks!

Funny, I was just having this conversation this past weekend while I was on holiday out in the country.

What came up was loose tobacco for rolling and ammunition.

On the tobacco side, loose canned tobacco is much cheaper than cigarettes, keeps longer and is therefore a better investment.

For the ammunition, we all agreed that it would be the new currency, broken up along the lines of: .22 = $/e.50/.75, .38 = $/e1.00/1.35, 12ga. = $/e5.00/6.75, 7.62/30.06 = $/e10.00/13.50 and so on... Still you would need to be careful when trading ammo, don't want to provide it to somebody who has none and then turn your back and get your head blown off

Skills are an excellent idea, but I feel that they would be worth more later in the game, after the major crisis has died down and the cities have burnt to the ground. Until then, everyone is going to be running amok, shooting at anything that moves and there will be no time for rebuilding quite yet.

Fresh water... We take it for granted, but when the tap doesn't put out anymore and the stores have been looted clean of their supply, it will be a precious thing to come by, what with the possibility of bio/nuke warfare having taken out the reservoirs.

I've never seen the worth of gold in this scenario, yes it's rare, but you can't eat it, it's not really good for anything besides it's current monetary worth, and after it all worked out there would be so much to go around that everyone could have some (Of course I'm talking -/+90% death rate, Apocalyptic proportions here)

Stabilized petrol, it's already pricey enough, worth it's weight in gold after the fall. (Mad Max, anyone?)

A safe haven... Probably will be the most sought after commodity, my guess is you'll see people willing to do anything for the feeling of security and a peaceful night's sleep.

And it was about this time that we glanced down at our hands and hollered "Beers!!"

The list goes on and on, but what you have should always be proportionate to what you can defend.

Tobacco, alcohol, ammo as primary trade items.
Anti-biotics, pain killers, and "Hard pain killers" for the dying as secondary.
Rice, beans, eggs, and dried meats as tertiary.
And coffee would be almost like gold.
But I am thinking on a worst case scenario---mad max, and my location---middle of nowhere, where it is hard to get to from any good sized city on 1 tank of gas (if it is even available) abundant wildlife, water if you know how to find it, and defendable canyons, mountains, and caves.

Anything that people will need to survive will be worth alot more than it is now.

If your looking to stock up now, i would suggest the following

Fishing line/hooks: People will want food and fishing is as good as any other way to get a decent sized meal.

Tools: Everybody will be looking for tools to fix or build things. This could include anything from a small pokcet knife or multi tool, to spanners and saws most tools will be in short supply so whatever you have will be worth something.

Seeds: A way for you or others to grow fresh food to eat or barter with, with no other means of getting fresh vagetable these would be worth a healthy amount in times of a crisis.

Petrol: Now were talking. Petrol is going to be (probably) THE thing everyone wants. Nobody is going anywhere without it and will be extreamly rare.

These things are small and fairly easy to gather and store for long(ish) periods of time in preperation for what may lie in the future.

On a sligth tangent, how do you suppose you could go about trading safely without being robbed or even killed for what you have?

Can't think of anything that hasn't been mentioned, but one important thing was only touched on once: drugs. Of the recreational variety.

Just try not to get killed over them.

As with every other asset you will own, you will want to keep the storage location secret. Always travel to trade. Never conduct business near your "home base".

Originally posted by apc
As with every other asset you will own, you will want to keep the storage location secret. Always travel to trade. Never conduct business near your "home base".

I like that addition. It would be important to have anything of value outside of your home. Maybe buried or hidden nearby or secret trap door.