In a radical overturning of conventional wisdom, scientists in Georgia and California have found significant differences between commodity traders and chimpanzees. Chimps are, in fact, not very good at commodity trading:
the researchers found that chimpanzees often did not spontaneously barter food items, but needed to be trained to engage in commodity barter. Moreover, even after the chimpanzees had been trained to do barters with reliable human trading partners, they were reluctant to engage in extreme deals in which a very good commodity (apple slices) had to be sacrificed in order to get an even more preferred commodity (grapes)...
The report becomes particularly readable when it speculates on the reasons why:
because of their lack of property ownership norms...
...or, for that matter, pockets....
...chimpanzees in nature do not store property and thus would have little opportunity to trade commodities....MORE
