Note 1 — Chapter III · The Period of Barter.

The people on the island—both laborers and employers—were, however, fully agreed that life was too short to waste a good part of it in a game of “blindman’s-buff” on a large scale—for such this attempt to conduct exchanges on a basis of direct barter substantially was;1 but they nevertheless also clearly perceived that the game would continue to be played, to the interruption of all material progress, unless some other method of exchanging could be devised and adopted. Under the guidance, therefore, as it were, of instinct (Robinson Crusoe encouraging), and without any enactment of law, Twist, Needum, Pecks, Diggs, Friday, Friday’s father, Will Atkins, and every body else, by common consent, agreed to select and adopt some single commodity which all should agree to take in exchange for whatever of products or services they might have to dispose of; so that whenever any one had any thing to exchange, he might first exchange it for this commodity, whatever it might be, and then with such intermediate object purchase at such times and places, and in such proportions as he might desire, whatever he might need. And the moment this was done, civilization on the island took a long step forward, and the first great embarrassment growing out of the attempt to exchange exclusively by direct barter was removed. The tailor was no longer in danger of starving; the mason had no longer any anxiety about procuring clothing, and the laborer received as pay for his labor something which gave him an equivalent in meat, drink, lodging, and other necessities which he might need, without trouble; every man giving freely of his goods or services for the intermediate object, because he knew that every other person desirous of exchanging would be willing to do the same.