Trade after EOC?

[King of the Wastes]

I am interested to see your guys opinion on how trade will happen after a EOC event. Will gold and silver along with jewels be used or will paper money still be the norm, or will tangible goods be the rule of the land?

[imperator03]

Apr 19, 2011 1:55:42 GMT -5 King of the Wastes said:

I am interested to see your guys opinion on how trade will happen after a EOC event. Will gold and silver along with jewels be used or will paper money still be the norm, or will tangible goods be the rule of the land?

It will probably be a barter type system at first, unless some sort of economy survives the end. Since we can't foretell what will happen, all we can say with assurance is that needed resources will be scattered hither and yon. Based on that you'll see those areas with those resources specialize in developing those assets and trading for what they lack.

Over time people will turn to money, because it's just too useful not to. Barter puts limits on how and what you can trade which is why it only really works in a feudal or hunter-gatherer system. I imagine that gold and silver will reign supreme as trade routes get established and the economic life starts to stabilize. Paper money is on the way out, even without TEOTWAWKI. It's too easy to print up more paper money, at least with gold you can't print more of it.

Of course this all depends on the distribution of survivors and assets. It could very well be that there will be some sort of "superstate" that comes in and consolidates everything, but I'm not so sure that will happen here.

[King of the Wastes]

Interesting answer, I personally will try to force trade in bottlecaps and can tabs.

[imperator03]

Anything can be used, shells, tobacco, whiskey have all been used in the past. Heck, POW's in German camps would use cigarettes. What matters is that whatever is used has some value, unlike our current paper currency.

[King of the Wastes]

Convicts still use cigarette's as currency.

[JLemmerman77]

I have learned the skill of fermenting. I plan to use this to barter for things i dont have. Alcohol is ALWAYS a valuable commodity

[JLemmerman77]

As i said in my intro post. My group plans to operate trade routes. I have a few questions I would like to present as i may be trading with some of you.lol. 1. Contact. how do you propose we contact each other? HAM? Im looking into getting my license. If we do use HAM. what freq should be the norm? This stuff should be predetermined IMO. We will have enough to worry about in a shit fan. What other ways may we get in contact?

Traveling the routes. This will be a dangerous thing. And roads will likely be blocked by cars or just plain destroyed. So what are you alls thoughts on how the routes should be managed?

Just stickin a few topics out for discussion.

[smokey]

I think the only way that trade along roads would be possible is through armed caravans because of the fact of road gangs and rouge military units that would be along it looking for easy pickings. I plan on using railroad lines and high tension power line's as my new roads unless I need to go on the road. I feel that they connect to small enough towns and do not generally run along the larger highway systems that would be clogged do to traffic and the gangs.

[JLemmerman77]

Interesting thought about the rail system. Potentially a good route. But may be trains stopped on them. But if u had a 4x4 with those railroad wheel addons then you could offroad it around a train that was in ur way.

Please explain the high tension power lines u will use for your routes?

[smokey]

I figured gas would be scarce in the EOTW so even if its just mobile by foot power I would use the rail systens.
As for the high tension wires, they run to and from cities and are generally in a cut out section of the wilderness. Small towns dot the landscape around them and they are a good way to use as a destination marker for which direction to travel.

[King of the Wastes]

Whatever the routes are, we'll have to take into account weather. It's one of the reason's I want to move to Arizona, the climate there varies drastically and it's below the Rockie's. In that way travel is open year round. Of course this won't happen for years since I currently haven't the money to buy the land and build what I am planning. I want to eventually set a radio tower up on the land I end up getting as well so ham radio is a option.

[King of the Wastes]

If your serious about trade routes you might want to contact these guys.
www.wccorp.org/
We'll need a way to communicate long distances and these guys would be useful.

[smokey]

This past year or so I have been working on a survival guide. Its mostly done but I am always adding a little more to it. I have decided what I am going to do if the Apocalypse happens. If I manage to make it out of Jersey, I plan on heading towards the Mississippi river. Once there, Ill look for a decent sized river boat ( like a tug or trawler) and make my way up and down the river. Basically scavenging cities for specialty items while also hauling cargo up and down along with passengers.
I figure a decent amount of settlements will spring up along the river and trade will continue along it, so why not start a shipping business in the world of tomorrow

[King of the Wastes]

How do you plan to get fuel though? I know that gasoline goes bad after about a year if it doesn't get treated, I don't know about diesel though.

[smokey]

www.thehighdefinite.com/2010/12/the-ss-huckleberry-zombie-survival-riverboat-finally/ ...

In all reality its more of a hope that there will be people who are willing to trade. If Im luck and find someone making some type of bio-fuel or something, I might be able to give them an 85% discount on shipping.

Also something my friend was saying to me at a party the other night but I was a little too drunk to comprehend, was using solar panels to charge the batteries of the ship and power it