Natural economy refers to a type of economy in which money is not used in the transfer of resources among people.

Belgian economic historian Henri Pirenne noted that: Henri Pirenne (December 23, 1862, Verviers - October 25, 1935, Uccle) was a leading Belgian historian. ...

"German economists have invented the term Naturalwirtschaft, natural economy, to describe the period prior to the invention of money. (...) The writers who describe this period as one of natural economy obviously do not intend the term to be understood in any absolute sense. They are well aware that ever since its invention, money has been in continuous use among all the civilised people of the West, and that the Roman Empire handed it on without interruption to its succession states. Thus when the early Middle Ages are described as a period of natural economy, all that is meant is that the part played by money was then so small as to be almost negligible. Undoubtedly there is a good deal of truth in this contention; but at the same time we must be on our guard against exaggeration" (Henri Pirenne, Economic and social history of medieval Europe. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1936, p. 103-104).

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The term is also used by Karl Marx in his economic writings such as Grundrisse and Das Kapital Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818 Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883 London) was an immensely influential German philosopher, political economist, and revolutionary. ... The Grundrisse is a lengthy work by the German philosopher Karl Marx, completed in 1858. ... Das Kapital (Capital) is a very large treatise on political economy written by Karl Marx in German. ...