Dominic Prince

Surviving the Recession

The tax-free barter boom

The credit crunch has had some unlikely repercussions. Tim Blixeth, a US lumber billionaire, was recently trying to sell his Caribbean island. With little interest shown in the $75 million asking price, Blixeth is now trying to barter it. He has suggested that a Gulfstream jet or a snazzy New York apartment might just secure the island.

On a different scale, I know how he feels. We used to pay £85 an hour to have a man who knew about computers come and sort out the cyber mess in the Prince household. We would often get bills for £500 and that would happen three or four times a year — it was ruinous. Tax deductible, yes, but nevertheless a huge sum of money. In the general scheme of computer geeks, the man who used to come to service our hardware and software might not have been considered expensive. But he was far too pricey for Prince family finances.

Then one day, a neighbour with whom we are on friendly terms volunteered that he knew a thing or two about computers and that he could probably help us. As he lived in the house next door, we leapt at the idea. He fixed and updated our computers and then refused payment.

True, my wife Rose had baked and offered him cakes and bread and all manner of other food but this was ridiculous: he had been hard at work on our computers for five or six hours. We insisted that we pay him but he was having none of it — and the more we insisted the harder he resisted. So instead we gave him a case of wine. Much embarrassed, he finally accepted it — and our barter economy began.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in