People generally believe that barter is an old world concept. This, however, is simply not true. Barter as a monetary system has existed in our world since ancient times and holds as much significance and practicality in society today as it did thousands of years ago.

A fine example of barter is the Swiss WIR. So, what is WIR? The WIR bank is the oldest, still existing, formal, business to business barter network in the world and has been operating in Switzerland since 1934. WIR is an abbreviation for Wirtschaftsring and represents the Swiss Economic Circle.

The Beginning.

Today WIR is the oldest and most successful economic network in the world. However, its beginning was a result of the economic difficulties and currency shortage after the World War I. The stock market crash of 1929 had left businesses seeking and devastated. In this era of chaos two businessmen, Werner Zimmermann and Paul Enz influenced by German libertarian economist, Silvio Gesell founded the WIR.

The Difficulties.
Like every enterprise the WIR had to go through its share of difficulties and problems. Inflation and the discount trade of barter currency were amongst the main problems that the WIR suffered. This almost destroyed the system, however, WIR survived because of the foresight and determination of a small group of people who were successful in bringing about two major changes:

The “rehabilitation” of the system which included a total change of management and a 95% devaluation of its currency.

The eradication of the Discount Trade by making it against the rules to buy or sell, for cash, the WIR Franc.

Those two changes resulted in a membership increase from 20,000 to 75,000 and enormous volume increases.

In Switzerland today one of every five businesses uses a barter system to increase commerce and profits.

barter, swiss, wir