Comments on: “A tin of diced carrots was worth practically nothing”

By: alena

alena — Mon, 05 Jul 2004 01:32:40 +0000

I’ll trade a tin of diced carrots for a coffee break :)

By: Giles

Giles — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 18:30:21 +0000

“the highly organised French trading centre, with its stalls and known prices.” More interestingly it then mentions that trade with the French had to be regulated – as ever.

By: dsquared

dsquared — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 17:11:09 +0000

Henry is of course quite right.

By: Henry

Henry — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 15:25:41 +0000

Just being pernickety here, but according to the usual pol-sci definitions, Venezuala doesn’t come close to being totalitarian (i.e. a one party state which tries to monopolize all forms of political and civic organization). It does have authoritarian tendencies (authoritarianism being more strong-man caudillo type of stuff and a fair bit milder).

By: Carlos

Carlos — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 08:43:45 +0000

As interesting as the Radford paper is (it’s taught at the USMA by the way), that Caracas blog is even more so. You need a chainsaw to cut through all the cant surrounding Venezuela in the US, and that guy has one. PS where’s the Surowiecki review? You know you want to.

By: godoggo

godoggo — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 06:28:15 +0000

Maynard, I remember going to a cockfight in Manilla. Every fight was preceded by a few minutes of manic (and mysterious) hand-gesturing between crowd members and the men in the ring, and was followed by wads of cash being tossed up and down. Presumably breaking the rules would have been unwise.

By: david

david — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 03:00:34 +0000

I’ll trade a tin of diced carrots for a coffee break :)

By: Maynard Handley

Maynard Handley — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 02:50:00 +0000

Reminds me of boarding school in my junior years (3rd yr through 7th yr of school). We had an elaborate agreed upon exchange system for meals. A slice of bread was worth a glass of milk. Certain meals or meal portions were worth two slices of bread/glasses of milk, while favorite meals and deserts were worth four. (This was a South African govt school, and while we were not starving, it certainly wasn’t a US college cafeteria. Meals were served to us with no choice at each meal, and while we could ask for seconds, Oliver Twist-like, it was unlikely that we would get anything.) To add to the fun, we were forbidden to talk during meals (and I imagine swapping food would also have been forbidden had the teachers known what happened). Thus meals involved an elaborate pantomime of pointing and head-shaking/waving as bits of food were moved around the table and negotiated; ocasionally you’d swap with people in the table next door, but of course this became more and more difficult with tables further away. Remarkably, since we were all keeping mutual accounts in our heads, I don’t ever remember disagreements over who owed what to whom, or anyone ever welshing on a debt. Maybe you have to get beyond a certain age before the idea occurs to you that you could simply lie about your status and perhaps get away with it. Aah, the things you put up with and accept as normal when you’re a child.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 02:34:15 +0000

I remember reading this a few years ago. A lovely article. There are some tantalising hints of a comparative study, too, with the passing description of “the highly organised French trading centre, with its stalls and known prices.” I wonder whether there’s a comparable article in the French literature. The fact that there was no production is worth thinking about more, too.