Honesty boxes are common in the countryside and in particular in the Fens. Indicative of a cohesive community they facilitate small-scale, trust based transactions for locally produced goods in a way which would be impossible in urban areas.

The honesty box is a throwback to pre-capitalist society. They eliminate the intervention of an intermediary between the producer and the consumer, echoing the direct exchange method of earlier economic systems. In pre-capitalist communities, such as feudal villages trade often occurred without middlemen; producers bartered or sold goods directly to neighbours within tight-knit, localised networks where social relationships were deeply embedded within familial and blood ties.

Governments, of course dislike economic systems without intermediaries because the lack of paperwork limits their revenue raising opportunities.