ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Natural economy

Hey kiddo! Do you know what a natural economy means? It's a type of economic system that's based on natural resources that are found in the environment.

Let's try to understand this with an example. Imagine a family that lives in the countryside. They grow their own food in their backyard garden and raise animals like cows, chickens and goats. They use the milk and eggs from the animals to make food for themselves. They also cut wood from trees to heat their home in winter.

In a natural economy, resources like land, water, and air are used to provide for the basic necessities of life. People use natural resources to produce what they need to survive, rather than relying on money or trade. This is because in a natural economy, people trade items they need, but don't have, with items they have, but don't need.

People in this economy don't use money to buy things like food, clothes or shelter. Instead, they trade things they don't need for things they do. For example, if someone has an excess of milk from their cows, they might trade it for wood from a neighbor who has excess wood. This type of trading is called bartering.

So, in a natural economy, people rely on the resources around them to provide for themselves and trading is done through bartering. It's a simple way of living that depends on working with nature to survive.

Hope that explanation helped you to understand natural economy like a 5-year-old.
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