>they would have to resort to primitive barter

This is a common myth used to support a gold standard and it's wrong. Barter was rarely practiced because it is too impractical and theoretical. Ledgers and debt existed as soon as imbalanced trade existed.

Paying later is a form of debt. Paying too much is a form of debt. In tribal communities people simply kept the ledger in their head. Some of them used physical objects to remind them of their debts but that is not any different from writing numbers into a notebook.

Common ledgers were tally sticks [0]. You just take a long object and use a knife to mark how much debt you have. They even had a resurgence in medieval Europe because of a shortage of precious metal coins.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_stick

These are all good points and I agree with them, but I don’t understand where the quote came from and whether you are making a case for or against the gold standard.