‹Progress of Exchange.›—The primitive form of exchange is ‹Barter›. Two persons, one of whom desires an object, and is possessed of an object which the other desires, agree to cede these objects reciprocally, or they agree to work separately, each at one thing, but for the purpose of dividing the total product of their labour in arranged proportions. This is ‹Barter›, which is, as the Socialists would say, Exchange, traffic, commerce ‹in embryo›. We observe here two Desires as motives—two Efforts as means—two Satisfactions as results, or as the termination and completion of the entire cycle; and this evolution is not essentially different from the same evolution accomplished in a state of isolation, except that the desires and satisfactions have, as their nature requires, remained intransmissible, and that Efforts alone have been exchanged. In other words, the two persons have worked for each other, and have rendered each other reciprocal ‹services›. It is at this point that Political Economy truly begins, for it is here that ‹value› first makes its appearance. Barter takes place only after an arrangement, a discussion. Each of the contracting parties is governed by considerations of self-interest. Each of them makes a calculation, which in effect comes to this, “I shall barter if the barter procures me the ‹satisfaction› I ‹desire› with a less ‹Effort›.” It is certainly a marvellous phenomenon that diminished efforts can yet keep pace with undiminished desires and satisfactions; and this is explained by the considerations which I have presented in the first part of this chapter. When two commodities or two services are ‹bartered›, we may conclude that they are of ‹equal value›. We shall have to analyze afterwards the notion of ‹value›, but this vague definition is sufficient for the present. We may suppose a ‹round-about barter›, including three contracting parties. ‹Paul› renders a service to ‹Peter›, who renders an equivalent service to ‹James›, who in turn renders an equivalent service to ‹Paul›, by means of which all is balanced. I need not say that this round-about transaction only takes place because it [p109] suits all the parties, without changing either the nature or the consequences of barter. The essence of Barter is discovered in all its purity even when the number of contracting parties is greater. In my ‹commune› the vine-dresser pays with wine for the services of the blacksmith, the barber, the tailor, the beadle, the curate, the grocer; while the blacksmith, the barber, the tailor, in turn deliver to the grocer, for the commodities consumed during the year, the wine which they have received from the vine-dresser.