That's just a straightforward description of what barter is. Barter exists, it has the indicated limitations.
Szabo's argument is that collectibles predate history by tens of thousands of years, that rather than replacing some mythical bartering system, that a system of exchanged collectibles co-evolved with the entire concept of trade.
substituted for otherwise necessary but non-existent trusting long term relationships, as in, allowed them to exist in the first place, not replacing some barter-only system. Nick isn't crediting the Austrian origin mythos here, he's providing a cogent alternative to it.
What I'm seeing no evidence for, and don't expect to, is the claim that debt precedes collectible money. This is quite unlikely, as it seems to be a feature of sedentary agrarian cultures; it's difficult to picture it arising in a milieu of traveling bands of hunter-gatherers, who are mutually suspicious, often rivalrous, and may not speak the same language.
Szabo's argument is that collectibles predate history by tens of thousands of years, that rather than replacing some mythical bartering system, that a system of exchanged collectibles co-evolved with the entire concept of trade.
substituted for otherwise necessary but non-existent trusting long term relationships, as in, allowed them to exist in the first place, not replacing some barter-only system. Nick isn't crediting the Austrian origin mythos here, he's providing a cogent alternative to it.
What I'm seeing no evidence for, and don't expect to, is the claim that debt precedes collectible money. This is quite unlikely, as it seems to be a feature of sedentary agrarian cultures; it's difficult to picture it arising in a milieu of traveling bands of hunter-gatherers, who are mutually suspicious, often rivalrous, and may not speak the same language.