International Barter

“Trade is the oldest form of diplomacy”

– John Kenneth Galbraith

With this thought in mind, The Bhawanipur Education Society College organised a one-of-its-kind event called ‘International Barter’ in the Jubilee Hall of the college campus on the 17th of September 2024 from 11 A.M. onwards. 18 enthusiastic students participated and were divided into groups of three, the hall was buzzing with excitement, intrigue, and anticipation. The vision was to bring the earliest forms of barter to life in the modern world while also keeping in mind the complex economic principles that have benefited the trading systems over decades. The event commenced with the Rector and Dean of Student Affairs, Prof. Dilip Shah felicitating the judge of the event, Ms Shiwani Jain, a highly esteemed Chartered Accountant with vast experience in finance and accounting of notable companies. She is also a public speaker and faculty member of the Dept. of Commerce (Morning) of BESC.

The day proceeded with participants acquiring a country for them to represent during the barter and a list of commodities that they were expected to trade with, the commodities were real-world resources like Coffee, Jute, or Dairy which made this experience realistic and stimulating for the students. Before the rounds began, the volunteers briefed the participants on trading systems, procedures, negotiation, and rules of the competition. This process proved to be desirable since it provided clarity to the participants and helped them strategize effectively. The event consisted of nine rounds with each round associated with a shock in the unpredictable market that affected trade conditions, for instance, the price of Soybean decreased by ten percent in the first round. These shocks paved the way for the trading process of each country, who were expected to trade within the limit of ten lakh rupees, which also reflected the financial constraints that countries have to face during real-world trades. Throughout the trade, participants were also expected to give reasonable justifications for each decision that they made and were also cross-questioned by the judge to ensure accuracy in the scoring process.

Following the same procedure, nine rounds of trading were completed before which a surprise Q&A round was also conducted to test the participant’s general knowledge and logical reasoning skills. The judge, Ms Jain put forth thought-provoking questions including how trade could affect a country’s currency, or which stocks could be affected in the case of World War Three. This round also challenged the participants’ economic understanding and current affairs awareness. The event concluded with the judge providing critical yet motivating feedback to all the participants and gave them a window to work on their shortcomings and prepare themselves better for their next competition. The event ended with the announcement of the winners who were Paraguay as the second runner-up, Uganda as the first runner-up, and the United Kingdom as the winner.

REPORTER – Jiya Tanna
PHOTOGRAPHERS – Agrag Ghosh, Gourav Choudhary, Spandan Samanta, Nayan Agarwal