ABSTRACT
Some have thought that among nearly all savage peoples trade began in the shape of intertribal exchange,—a development, perhaps, of ceremonial reciprocal gift-making as among different tribes. In this way a tribe which had cultivated the art of wickerwork or of pottery might exchange its products for those of a tribe which, in some way, had stumbled upon the art of making crude implements out of iron. There is evidence that intertribal trade of this sort sometimes occurs in exceedingly primitive conditions, even before trade of any recognizable sort takes place within the tribe. But it is easy to be too dogmatic with reference to problems like these. It is not safe to try to describe any stage in human history by any one single sweeping formula. As a matter of fact we know that, in some
cases at least, a considerable division of labor within the tribe accompanied or even preceded the stage of intertribal trade.
