Legal Term: BARTER

Definition: A contract by which the parties exchange goods for goods. To complete the contract the goods must be delivered, for without a delivery, the right of property is not changed.

2. This contract differs from a sale in this, that barter is always of goods for goods, whereas a sale is an exchange of goods for money. In the former there never is a price fixed, in the latter a price is indispensable. All the differences which may be pointed out betwen these two contracts, are comprised in this, it is its necessary consequence. When the contract is an exchange of goods on one side, and on the other side the consideration is partly goods and partly money, the contract is not a barter, but a sale. See Price, Sale.

3. If an insurance be made upon returns from a country where trade is carried on by barter, the valuation of the goods in return shall be made on the cost of those given in barter, adding all charges. Wesk. on Ins. 42. See 3 Camp. 351 Cowp. 818, 1 Dougl. 24, n., 1 N. R. 151 Tropl. de lEchange.

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