CHAPTER 22 - THREE TOP BARTERING ITEMS

Three basic items considered “luxuries” should always have a place in your emergency food storage if possible and would be important for personal use as well as highly valued in bartering situations.  These are sugar, honey, and alcohol.  These items have an excellent shelf life and can be stored safely for at least 10 years.  If you store them carefully enough, their shelf lives could be just about indefinite which makes them a great choice for bartering storage.

SUGAR

When considering the storage of sugar (white, brown, and confectioners), you may be thinking it would be better to store luxury items that contain these ingredients that are already made into candies, etc. 

The bottom-line response is no, it would not be better to store candy, etc. instead of the sugars used to make it.  Of course candy and ready made sweets that are able to be easily stored are good to have in your storage for bartering, but first you need to make sure you have a good supply of just the plain sugars as those would be more valuable to others who want to make their own personal sweet favorites using the sugar. 

In other words, plain sugar will appeal to a broader bartering base whereas candy would be valuable to few types of people.  If you barter a cup of sugar, that sugar could be divided something like this: those who have a sweet-tooth always raging could enjoy savoring a spoon or two of the sugar, those missing having something sweet in their hot coffees or teas could use their portion in that manner, someone else might prefer enjoying their portion of brown sugar sprinkled on a sweet potato, etc. 

If you bartered the same basic amount of sugar made into candy, then the other ways to enjoy it would not be possible at the same time.  We have probably all heard stories of sugar shortages in the old days when it was an unusual luxury to spend money on a cup of sugar at the local grocery store. 

Even the Little House on the Prairie books mention getting plain sugar for Christmas presents and the joy it brought as such.  Since mankind does not need sugar to survive, this is one of those ingredients that is not vital for survival but is an excellent bartering item. 

In that manner, sugar just might prove to be valuable to survival in terms of placating or working with others who are not necessarily concerned with your rights or survival either one.

HONEY

Honey is a great item for stockpiling if you have the room to do so.  It isn’t something that lends itself to easy transport so might not be one of the better choices if you think you will be moving around a lot. 

But it has a great shelf life if stored properly.  It will eventually crystallize in whatever container it is stored in but quickly regains it liquid-like properties once it is heated. 

Honey is a good choice because it also useful for its medicinal properties.  It can be used as a great salve and infection fighter when applied to open wounds or burns, it can help be soothing to a sore throat when added to tea or in a hot citrus juice drink, and it can make the taste of some food items that are ingested for various health maladies to be better tolerated. 

Honey is also considered to be a natural antibiotic which will make it a priceless treasure if needed for that aspect.  At the same time, it can also be used in most of the same ways sugar can be but as already mentioned, it is harder to carry and messier to pass around in bartering agreements in small amounts where sugar is easy to trade back and forth.

ALCOHOL

Alcohol is a luxury item with many uses and is valuable to diverse people groups because it is so versatile. 

Those who tend to lean on alcohol consumption to get through hard times are usually willing to pay just about anything in order to get it.  It can also double for a painkiller or sedative when medical situations call for such. 

Have you ever seen an old western movie where the tough cowboy needs to have a tooth pulled or a bullet dug out and takes some good swigs of whiskey right beforehand?  That isn’t just for comfort although of course there is that aspect. 

Especially when needing to operate on something internally or pull a tooth, alcohol will not only numb the area when it is applied directly (like holding some in the mouth in the area of the bad tooth before it is extracted), it also has medicinal benefits for the stomach, etc. and can be used to deal with nausea and such. 

But the value of alcohol isn’t just through consuming it for whatever reason; it is also an excellent antiseptic and disinfectant that can be poured on the body area to sanitize before surgery. 

It works well to disinfect other surfaces as well such as counter tops and surgical instruments can be disinfected by soaking in a solution high in alcohol content.

OTHER CHOICES

Those are just three of the best choices to storage for bartering use in a crisis, but there are many other food items that are valuable as well. 

Some that are lighter and easier to transport if necessary might be better choices depending on your individual circumstances and storage space. 

Coffee, teas (loose leaves or bagged), drink mixes such as kool-aid, and dried herbs and spices are all good bartering items to consider adding to your storage and these are light enough to make them easy to barter with in small amounts while keeping your larger stash secreted.