Abstract
Non-monetary exchange systems persist throughout human history, challenging assumptions about monetary dominance and revealing fundamental limitations in conventional accounting frameworks. This systematic literature review examines how accounting practices adapt to and shape non-monetary exchange across diverse historical and contemporary contexts, investigating patterns in accounting practices, challenges to conventional theory, and implications for economic resilience. Following PRISMA guidelines, the review analyzed 28 peer-reviewed articles from 1979 to 2025 identified through Scopus database searches combining barter-related and accounting terms. The analysis reveals four major themes: historical foundations showing sophisticated proto-banking systems in colonial America that operated without currency; crisis-driven alternatives demonstrating how post-Soviet and pandemic contexts generated innovative accounting responses prioritizing survival over transparency; Indigenous and community-based systems embedding reciprocal obligations and cultural values that resist commodification; and contemporary corporate barter exposing strategic manipulation possibilities while revealing regulatory framework inadequacies. Findings demonstrate that non-monetary accounting represents neither primitive antecedents nor crisis deviations but sophisticated mechanisms for economic coordination serving essential social functions that monetary systems cannot address. Indigenous accounting practices particularly challenge Western frameworks through fundamentally different value conceptions prioritizing relational accountability over financial measurement. Corporate manipulation of barter accounting reveals how opacity serves multiple strategic functions beyond concealment. The evidence collectively indicates that accounting theory requires fundamental reconceptualization to accommodate exchange plurality as a permanent economic feature rather than exceptional cases requiring special treatment, with implications for developing more inclusive and sustainable economic futures.
Date Received
September 11, 2025
Date Revised
March 26, 2026
Date Accepted
April 2, 2026
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Peilouw, Christian T.; Ludigdo, Unti; Subekti, Imam; and Prihatiningtias, Yeney Widya
(2025)
"Accounting for Non-Monetary Exchange: A Systematic Review of Barter Literature from Colonial Ledgers to Digital Economies,"
Markets, Globalization & Development Review:
Vol. 10:
No.
4, Article 3.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/mgdr/vol10/iss4/3
Included in
Accounting Commons, Anthropology Commons, Economics Commons, Marketing Commons, Other Business Commons, Sociology Commons
Author Bio
Christian Timotius Peilouw, ORCID 0000-0003-0554-1183, works in the Accounting Department of State Polytechnic of Kupang, and is a Ph.D. Student, Doctoral Program in Accounting, Universitas Brawijaya, Indonesia.
Unti Ludigdo, ORCID 0009-0004-2710-4616, is Professor, Doctoral Program in Accounting, Universitas Brawijaya, Indonesia
Imam Subekti, Ph.D., ORCID 0000-0002-9194-5143, is with the Doctoral Program in Accounting, Universitas Brawijaya, Indonesia
Yeney Widya Prihatiningtias, DBA, ORCID 0000-0003-3663-2782, is with the Doctoral Program in Accounting, Universitas Brawijaya, Indonesia