Surrounded by packets of homemade cookies and Tia Maria poured into recycled bottles, Alberto Censi, 68, peers up from checking his accounts to look around for any potential buyers. Although he is counting pink, blue and yellow paper notes, do not mistake this for Monopoly money. As he has done every Saturday for the past 14 years, Censi is counting up his ‘creditos’, the form of currency used at the bartering club in Isidro Casanova. The town, just outside of the capital, is host to one of the few remnants of a bartering culture that helped millions of jobless people during the 2001-2 economic crisis in Argentina.
“Look at the formal market as a high ladder, with very high steps unreachable for the majority of people. The market of bartering, in contrast, was visualised as an inclined plane with a smooth inclination in which every person could ascend according to his own rhythm and expectations,” wrote Carlos de Sanzo, one of the founders of the Global Bartering Network on the website about the history of bartering clubs in Argentina.
In Argentina, bartering became so popular that a simple exchange of items was no longer enough. Due to its growing popularity, the clubs began to implement ‘creditos’, a currency only used within the clubs. But a decade ago, few would have speculated that an idea centred on improving the environment and the economy would expand to such a socio-economic phenomenon.
A Pumpkin for a Glass Slipper
In 1995, de Sanzo, along with Horacio Covas and Rubén Ravera, began a bartering community of about 30 participants in Bernal, Quilmes. The initial aim of the bartering club was to create a system that would benefit both the environment and the economy. Sanzo stated that the idea for the network of exchange occurred after he had given some extra pumpkins he was growing to a neighbour.
“Suddenly, it was as if the pumpkins had shown themselves to be carriages – the exact opposite of the story,” he noted, referring to the Cinderella fairytale.
The pumpkins in this story however, also represent an important aspect to the early functioning of the clubs – the role of the producer. A popular term that became connected to the clubs was “prosumer”. It refers to the idea that in order for the clubs to keep functioning, people must not only be willing to sell things but also produce items, such as knitted sweaters or food. Otherwise, people would eventually run out of items to sell.
As more people began to participate, the founders formed the Global Barter Network. Although it sounds like a formal system, each club was autonomous, lacking any formal structure. At this point any person who joined the club was given a certain number of creditos to start and encourage swapping of goods and services.
At each club an organiser usually exchanges money for creditos. A person might be able to use the same type of credito at different clubs and exchange them for goods or services. The value system depends on the person running the club. For example, Alicia Menesez, in charge of the club at Isidro Casanova says that if a bottle of olive oil is worth 5 pesos that gets multiplied by three so that it would be 15 creditos. At another club in Rafael Castillo however, to participate, an entrance fee of one peso and ten creditos is required.
Bartering was at its height during 2001-2. During this time, the government had instituted “el corralito”, a limit of 250 pesos as the amount of money anybody could withdraw from the bank in a week. In addition, the unemployment rate was close to 25%. Thus, more people throughout Argentina started organising groups at places like schools where a large crowd could gather to exchange goods.
According to economics professor Gabriel Molteni of the Catholic University of Buenos Aires, “it is impossible to estimate the number of people who participated in the clubs” since the state does not regulate them. An article written in 2001 by the Inter-American Agency of Economic Journalism (AIPE) noted that about 2.5 million people participated with goods worth an estimated 120m pesos exchanged.
But two years later that number was reported to have dropped by about a third. So why did the phenomenon fade as fast as it bloomed?
According to Professor Molteni, one of the problems had always been access to raw materials, which became a greater issue as the network expanded. Once people started relying too much on the creditos, fewer items were produced and fewer services given.
Whereas once a visit to the doctor could be exchanged for a meal, people now started to use bartering as a business. They would get items for cheap outside and sell them for higher prices once inside. In addition, despite creditos having no monetary value outside the clubs, people started creating fake bills, which led to hyperinflation.
“Valor Humano Energetico”
In spite of the drastic decrease in popularity, there are many familiar faces each week at certain barter clubs, with about 250 people showing up each time. What was once a thriving network with 500 people at each club, which numbered themselves in the hundreds, has returned to being a semi-underground, word-of-mouth network.
A few months ago one location even had to shut down due to lack of funds to rent the space.
“One day I came here and it was closed. Someone told me, ‘Let’s go – it’s over here now, and so I’m here!” says 87-year-old Juliana Bolivar Arias who sits behind her stand of potted plants. Legally blind, she could not see the sign hanging above the garage that read “Rent: Warehouse”. Peering into a hole of a large gate with green-chipped paint, you can still see the painted signs on the walls that read “Si, al Trueque!” (Yes to Bartering!).
The new garage rented by Menesez is bigger, equipped with a gaming area and food stands. The regulars bring their families and spend the day conversing and bartering.
Menesez, along with countless other participants say that the club is therapeutic. It helped many out when they lacked jobs and although now many do have work, they still come with shopping bags full of items to exchange.
Yet eight years after the economic collapse, many Argentines think that the clubs have vanished.
“They ignore them,” says Censi, adding that people still need and want to barter. Professor Molteni adds that in the last years it has been difficult to find jobs and find goods in the formal market, and more are returning to bartering.
From his day here, Censi might return home with some chicken for dinner or a deck of cards for 100 creditos to play with his family. If by chance something gets sold, he will a credito with the words “Valor Humano Energetico” (Energetic Human Value) written on the front. In this small town an hour outside Buenos Aires, it is this phrase embraced wholeheartedly that seems to be keeping a steady influx of barterers.
