Though the barter system was simple, it had it's drawbacks too. For example, if you where a skilled artisan who made tables, then you would want to barter tables for the things you need, like food. But what do you do when you want rice, and you cannot find a farmer who needs tables? You have to search for one. This takes a lot of time and you have to go from place to place carrying tables!
Another drawback is when you want something small, like tomatoes. A whole table is worth much more than a few tomatoes. The tomato vendor will not want just a leg of a table, and you don't want hundreds of tomatoes that will spoil before you csn eat them all ! So what can you do?
The barter system gradually declined because of these disadvantages, and a new system of exchange developed, the system of money.
Another problem is deciding how many of each item should be exchanged for another. How many bushels of rice would you have to give in return for a cow? Or how many tomatoes can be exchanged for a pail of milk?
