Urban Camping: Bartering: Think Big

Urban Camping

In a foreign country at the end of my marriage, I traveled nomadically for 11 months staying in 24 places throughout Holland, Portugal, Canada, USA, Brazil and Argentina before buying a home.

It made such an impression on me that I intentionally set out on a second nomadic trip to further explore the concepts of mobility, simplicity, and perspective. While doing my graduate degree, I camped in 30 places in 55 weeks. Now I host urban nomads through the Couchsurfing Project.

19 February 2006

Bartering: Think Big

Tim Phillips wrote an article for the Guardian Unlimited in which he reminds us that Dutch colonial administrator, Peter Minuit bartered $24 of beads for Manhattan in 1626.

The 1 March 2003 article titled, The new global currency, explains that companies have been using bartering techniques for some time.

In 1935, Monsanto exchanged saccharin for mackerel in China.

In 1972, PepsiCo traded Pepsi for vodka in the Soviet Union.

Technorati tag: urban camping

1 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Read the Island at the Centre of the World - the book about the Dutch history of Manhattan - it does clarify some of that mythological Peter Minuit stuff. For example, something that was worth a very small amount to a dutch settler - a hatchet for example - was extraordinarily valuable for the natives; also, most Native tribes felt that they retained the right to hunt, fish, and otherwise use the property that the Europeans were quite clear had been 'sold' to them.
Nothing like a few beheadings-by-hatchet to clear the European mind!
lesa; Monday, 20 February, 2006

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About Me

Name: Jennifer Metz

Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands

Thinking outside the box
by getting out of my box.

I want mobility:
Get-up-and-go in the global village. Navigation to other vantage points. What does the world look like from there? Is there room to move? Or am I tied down to my stuff?

I want simplicity:
Real needs and wants are fewer than they sometimes seem. 'Accumulation' is as inevitable as death and taxes. Can I prune back the attention-stealing stuff to give space to the useful and meaningful things?

I want perspective:
Understanding of how multi-faceted life is. Consideration of options. Is the world getting smaller? Or is MY WORLD getting smaller? How many viewpoints have I seen so far? Is there a 'road less traveled' or a million billion different roads? Can I 'get out of the woods' and look for multiple angles?