“I’ll trade you my apple for your banana.”
Every day, kids across America are trading. They may trade food items at lunch to get what they like to eat. Outside of school, they may trade other things that they collect, such as baseball cards or stickers (or anything else!).
This type of trade is called bartering. People barter when they trade a good or service for another good or service. They do not use money. In the past, people bartered often, but it was not always easy to make a fair trade.
So, money was invented. Bills and coins are easy to carry, and they have the same value no matter what you buy. Today, most people use money to buy what they want.
