Lot's of comments below are uptight about the definition of "barter". Which is a very vaguely defined word: trade of goods/services without the use of money.
Old school accounting in many parts of the world did not rely on financial transactions. Central authorities preferred "proper" financial instruments, but for the commoner, bartering was a regular activity.
Knicks on clay tablets tracked debt, sure, but the repayment may not have been via money. 2 pelts to Bill now for a bushel of grain in return next month type agreements are all over history.
It's hard to determine how much activity like this there was, and a lot of the history focused on official financial systems because, well, it's easy to find data on.
Old school accounting in many parts of the world did not rely on financial transactions. Central authorities preferred "proper" financial instruments, but for the commoner, bartering was a regular activity.
Knicks on clay tablets tracked debt, sure, but the repayment may not have been via money. 2 pelts to Bill now for a bushel of grain in return next month type agreements are all over history.
It's hard to determine how much activity like this there was, and a lot of the history focused on official financial systems because, well, it's easy to find data on.