Following in the vein of the recent time travel threads, what modern items could you use in trade with the past?

Knowledge probably. I would teach them the things we have learned since their time that would be very useful to them.

@jackm Knowledge probably.

The question limits you to nothing in advance of their current technology.

(Paying very loose lip service to the various time travel “Conundrums.)

nothing. they would burn you at the stake for witchcraft as soon as you step out of the temporal rift.

Oh, well then I would use our modern technology to make things that they had and needed but just much cheaper and quicker. Then I would go back and sell them at a reduced price, thereby monopolizing the market.

I think I’d trade away my food for their gold or other precious metals.
Sure, people have had food from the beginning of time, but as the years progress, we become more and more efficient at creating it.

Imagine wheat harvesting in the 21st century versus the 18th century. In the same amount of time, we could collect significantly greater amounts.

Perhaps ways of preserving the food, such as meat, as well. I don’t know if our present forms of preservation break the “nothing in advance of tech in that era” rule or not (well, I’m sure our most popular ways break that rule, but we must have some other less popular forms).

Now, for what we’d get in return? The precious metals?
Sure, the 18th century would have less efficient ways of collecting those in comparison to the 21st century, but there would be so much more of it in the 18th century to collect.

@jackm , well then I would use our modern technology to make things that they had and needed but just much cheaper and quicker.

What sort of things could you tool up for and produce that would not be offset by the fact that skilled artisans in the past worked for a fraction of a modern wage?

Textiles, and lumber come to mind. I am pretty sure we could do these things cheaper than they did, even with inflation taken into account.

@Sarcasm Imagine wheat harvesting in the 21st century versus the 18th century. In the same amount of time, we could collect significantly greater amounts.

I posed this in a first person sense. What could you trade? Not what could the twenty-first century trade.

@jackm _Textiles, and lumber come to mind

I doubt whether either of those would be viable. Lumber was cheaper then, even expensive hardwoods, and non-synthetic textiles (wool, linen, silk) are not cheaper here now, (or not cheap enough to make them viable for good profits in trade) than they would have been in the past.

The problem is not as simple as it might appear at first glance.

@DarkScribe
I am mainly looking at labor times for production. I could turn out thousands of yards of fabric for cents in a modern factory today in only a couple of hours. That would months if not years back then. This has to be a net gain for me.

@DarkScribe I posed this in a first person sense. What could you trade?
I thought I answered it in the first person sense. I’m not allowed to purchase the wheat from farmers and send it through the time portal? I have to grow the wheat on my own in order to trade it with the past?

There is nothing that I personally could make that is:
a) Desired by the past
b) Not breaking the “nothing in advance of the technology of that era” rule.

I’m really not sure what you’re expecting, if my answer is invalid.

Should I make friendship bracelets and knit sweaters for the past?

@Sarcasm I’m not allowed to purchase the wheat from farmers and send it through the time portal?

You can purchase anything, but shipping thousands of tonnes of primary produce isn’t exactly what I would suggest as a personal endeavour.

There are certainly a number of things that will offer great potential. I have been considering this for some time – weeks in fact – and narrowed it down to a dozen or so areas where modern technology can be used to produce trade items that would not in themselves be in advance of past technology. . I wondered what others could come up with. Because of very cheap labour and material costs, it is not easy. For instance, a bottle of liquor here would cost many times the value of one in the eighteenth century. There are a number of things that a small engineering shop could produce that would provide advantage with regard to quality and production.

I obviously have not made my question clear. It is a difficult puzzle, but it does have some effective answers.

Synthetic gemstones are relatively inexpensive. Alloys were not unknown even hundreds of years ago, just not common – some were difficult to work with. Lenses for optometrical purposes would be one of the most potentially lucrative. A pair of glasses made to a modern standard would have more value than a good piece of Chippendale. Aspirin, an amazingly versatile drug has been around since the mid eighteenth century, was in demand but expensive.

I would look at trade with the wealthy, not the general population.

Salt, of coarse course. For centuries it was worth more than gold. I would take a shitload, I mean silo-load, back to a-few-hundred-years-ago-time and trade for it for cod. Out of the cod, I would manufacture Bacalao. With bacalao aplenty, there would be fair-maiden aplenty. With such wealth, often comes a hamlet near an inlet, off the coast of Summerset.

non-synthetic textiles (wool, linen, silk) are not cheaper here now, (or not cheap enough to make them viable for good profits in trade) than they would have been in the past.
I have to agree with @jackm, and add manufactured clothing to the list. All fabric was woven by hand until the Industrial Revolution, and even then, cost was prohibitive for most people, who usually only had two changes of clothing. People willed their clothes to family members upon their death, and add socks, and women’s pantyhose or tights to the mix.
More items:
Paper, books, ballpoint pens, zippers, plastic bags

Bic lighters.
To the peeps of the 10th century.

Sniper rifle’s to our heroes of the 18th century.
Ya know, help pick up the pace a bit.

leopard 2 battletanks plus a large amount of diesel, tornado strike bombers, tiger attack helicopters. i’m sure the british empire will be happy to have them, especially against the rebelling colonies