Countertrade (standard:humor, 2857 words)
Author: GXD	Added: Aug 04 2007	Views/Reads: 3066/2068	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
International commerce is more of an adventure than some consumers are aware of. Yak butter, for example.

COUNTERTRADE 

"Hi there, Shaga. You're looking good today. What you got for me?" 

"Ah, good health to you Kennedy-Sir.  Indeed, were it not for the
indisposition of my beloved wife, who is at this moment cared for by my 
mother-in-law, I would have for you at least nine hundred kilos of Yak 
butter.  As fortune would have it, I have brought you this morning 
scarcely seven hundred kilos." 

"May your wife be blessed with a speedy recovery and your mother-in-law
return promptly to her happy home in the hills.  Your other wives, are 
they well?" 

"Indeed they are, my good old friend.  And thank you for inquiring.  I
have received joyously another son into my family since we last spoke." 


"Permit me to extend my congratulations, Shaga.  You have once more
ennobled yourself as the head of your happy and self-sufficient 
household." 

"Alas, dear friend Kennedy-Sir, hardly self- sufficient.  I had hoped
today to trade my surplus Yak butter for many varied and essential 
goods to improve my home before the fall rains come.  Among other 
things, it was my hope to return home with many red clay tiles to fix 
the leak in my roof. Unfortunately, however, the vendors at the Tile 
Factory have become so corrupt they will no longer barter tiles for 
butter.  That indeed saddens me. 

These days, the merchants will not pay more than thirty aat per kilo,
and if it is not promptly sold, my family will have to give the butter 
away to relatives before it spoils.  Imagine, just last year, my seven 
hundred kilos of butter would have traded for six hundred tiles." 

"That is so, Shaga, but I cannot trade you tiles for Yak butter. Thirty
aat, you say.  That's about ... hmm, five sheckels or six hundred 
zuzim. No, no, I cannot exchange Yak butter for tiles." 

"Perhaps not, old friend, but you certainly know another merchant who
sadly lacks my butter, some greengrocer in your far western land, 
perhaps, whose tribe has increased manyfold since you first sent 
samples of my butter to him." 

"My dear Shaga, it is the merchant Kroger-Sir to whom you refer.  And in
truth, his lot has improved and his family and servants have prospered 
with that first shipment of your quality butter, but I assure you that 
six hundred tiles is certainly an unrealistic price for seven hundred 
kilos of butter.  Were your mother-in-law much younger and prettier, 
single and willing, and you were to present her to me with your 
blessings, I would gladly exchange six hundred tiles for her." 

"Your offer does me honor, kind Kennedy-Sir, but as you already know,
Ha!, in my tribe the law has long forbidden the trading of flesh for 
capital goods, and even gold!.  Though, to recall the tales of my 
uncle, may he rest in peace, before she became my wife's mother, Dijani 
was a formidable woman in her prime, and highly respected besides." 

"Well, then.  How about a cup of tea, old friend, and perhaps a round of
chess.  I have here a few tea-cakes left by a Western visitor from 
Vienna.  Bring your camels into the shade.  The Yak-butter will not 
spoil." 

"Thank you most sincerely, but I am desolated to say that I must trade
all of my Yak butter for other commodities before the sun sets today, 
since the pharmacy has my wife's remedy already waiting and I have not 
one aat to purchase it." 

"Why did you not say so at first, Shaga.  I have here four hundred aat
to loan you at only two percent per day.  There is no need for your 
wife to suffer and thus deprive you of her services. After all, this is 
what friends are for." 

"So right you are, honest merchant, and thank you for it, but in truth I
must return with much more than twelve or fifteen tiles in exchange for 


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