NCERT Book Class 12 Geography (Fundamentals Of Human Geography) Chapter 8 International Trade

You are already familiar with the term “trade”
Unit-III as a tertiary activity which you have studied in
Chapter-8 Chapter 7 of this book. You know that trade
means the voluntary exchange of goods and
services. Two parties are required to trade. One
person sells and the other purchases. In certain
places, people barter their goods. For both the
parties trade is mutually beneficial.
Trade may be conducted at two levels:
international and national. International trade
is the exchange of goods and services among
countries across national boundaries.
Countries need to trade to obtain commodities,
they cannot produce themselves or they can
purchase elsewhere at a lower price.
International Trade The initial form of trade in primitive
societies was the barter system, where direct
exchange of goods took place. In this system if
you were a potter and were in need of a plumber,
you would have to look for a plumber who
would be in need of pots and you could
exchange your pots for his plumbing service.

Fig. 8.1: Two women practising barter system in
Jon Beel Mela

Every January after the harvest season Jon Beel Mela
takes place in Jagiroad, 35 km away from Guwahati
and it is possibly the only fair In India, where barter
system is still alive. A big market is organised during
this fair and people from various tribes and communi-
ties exchange their products.

The difficulties of barter system were
overcome by the introduction of money. In the
olden times, before paper and coin currency

70 Fundamentals of Human Geography