By Author — Sep 10, 2023

#1 Origins of trade and proto-branding

Not traded, not shared wealth generation

It is 200,000 BC, your tribe lost a battle with invaders. You are the only person that survived and managed to escape. From now on everything you make, find, collect or hunt is going to directly impact your own situation. If you manage to build weapons, gather food, craft shelters, stack surplus, 100% of it contributes to your personal wealth. No taxes, no sharing, no reliance on others to fulfil their part.

It has been few months, you survived, got stronger, more skilled at crafting weapons and hunting. You know a few places where to gather food. Being bored one day you decide to explore the area behind the river. In far distance you spot a group of people in their settlement. Suddenly you hear rustle of leaves on your right. You lean from behind the bushes to see what made that noise. It is a beautiful woman collecting blueberries. She looks at you and it is obvious she likes you. You decide to bring her to your side of river and show her shelters you built. Both of you decide to stay together. Now everything you hunt, build, gather affects both of you. All that's yours is hers, you share. It is in your personal self-interest to care for her well-being as well as well-being of your future children.

Intra-group trade

Few years have gone by and she convinces you to join her old tribe. Now you are a family within a large group of people. You are an excellent hunter and tool builder. People in the group would love to have their own copies of what you've crafted for yourself. You build for them. Being grateful for what you've done they bring you to the shore to show you a boat they made for you. Few weeks go by and one of your kids gets sick. Fortunately the tribe has specialist with knowledge of medical herbs and they are able to save his life. Even though the tribe is not your direct family, because of the trust relationship, its future and general assumption of reciprocity this type of giving with no expectations within the group works out very well.

Inter-group trade

One day travelers passing through the region come by. They are out of food and their tools are broken, but they offer portion of their herd in exchange for some crafted weapons and few large bags of nuts. Here exchange of goods needs to happen on short time frame - immediately, as there is no guarantee of seeing each other again.

Proto-branding

As you come more and more in contact with other neighboring groups you want to make sure that animals your tribe takes care of are easy to identify if lost, so you paint symbols on them. With time your group engages in more and more trading. You sometimes exchange some of your animals for very rare medicine. One day a traveler comes by and asks about the animals with blue mark painted over them. He says he was impressed by their quality, how healthy and well grown their are and that he is willing to pay 2x the standard trade value for these. Blue mark quickly gains on popularity and people are willing to offer a lot more for animals that have it. A proto-brand associated with quality is born. Buyers will gladly pay extra for guarantee of high standard and for not having to engage in any checks. They just trust the mark and are happy not having to deal with uncertainty. Now the worth of the product is not only the value that it carries, but also the added value of reduced risk of making a bad deal.

Prestige

Now that the product is known for high quality whoever owns it increases his own value by association. What in turn increases respect he gets from his tribe as well as desirability in eyes of female companions. All of these benefits stack above the original value of the product itself.

Supply and demand

Now the less of blue marked animals are available the higher their prestige. It enters an infinite glitch mode where the price can increase indefinitely, as the rarity caries the value of its own. It was the quality and popularity that helped spread the awareness, the recognition and ultimately the demand. Brand becomes the placeholder under which that popularity, recognition and trust score are stored under.