David Boyle's Funny Money - Linking it all up in the west country

Linking it all up in the west country

Town & Country Planning, June 2001

Local currencies sometimes seem like a neat idea that came from nowhere during the recession in the early 1990s - filling the pages of magazines like Country Living with the idea of bartering aromatherapy and what they tended to call 'pre-owned' clothes.
They were known as LETS - as they still are, of course - standing for Local Exchange and Trading Systems. But they were actually the latest manifestation of a long tradition.

The idea of local currencies were actually a Great Depression idea, flourishing in central Europe, Canada and the USA - exactly the same places that embraced LETS first in the 1990s. The Swiss barter system Wir, now over 70 years old and with a turnover equivalent to £12 billion a year, began then -was the only one to survive all the way through.

Then as now, Wir provides very low interest credit to small businesses, especially in the building and restaurant trade. It helped them survive in communities without enough conventional cash to bring people together with the work that needs doing.

The other Depression currencies collapsed, banned by President Roosevelt on his first day in office. But the ideas survived among a few North American enthusiasts, popping up in the occasional experiment in the 1970s, until two Canadian pioneers managed to stitch together a new idea of mutual credit in a local community - both in Vancouver.

David Weston's Community Exchange and Michael Linton's LETS have spread around the world over the past decade. They have, if we're honest, found it hard sometimes to put down sustainable roots in the UK as local economy building tools. But, as the recent Rowntree research shows, they are very successful at rebuilding communities, and keeping people in networks.

They have also been very successful in three kind of places at least - in inner cities, funded by local authority anti-poverty strategies, in Scotland and in the West Country.

Let's leave the first two aside for another day and concentrate on the third, because Somerset County Council has just published a report about developing the idea of local currencies as a way of protecting the local economies in this predominantly rural county. It's called Let's Make Time.

Somerset escaped foot and mouth up to a point, compared to the carnage in neighbouring Devon, but the local economies are suffering in the same way as they are in rural areas all over the UK. They have money seeping out to the utilities, supermarkets and distant multinationals, rather than being used over and over again creating local wealth.

The report was presented to local currency people in the small village of Compton Dundon, and jolly good fun it was - as it happens, the first beautiful day of the year. And it raises the question of whether LETS could ever grow to become an economic force in the region in the same way that Wir does in Swtizerland.

It turns out that the 35 LETS currencies in the West Country - using names like the 'shuttle' (Frome), the 'truckle' (West Mendip) and the 'brock' (South Somerset) - are already working out how to do this.

Starting at the Glastonbury Festival last year, they have been meeting to work out what a regional link-up would look like, taking advice from the highly successful LETS currency that now covers south west Australia, where they can even pay local taxes in local currency.

The answer, they believe, is a new currency called the celt - this is after all Celtic country. It will be issued as a paper currency, the size of a £5 note, which can be bought in return for whichever LETS currency people use. And it will be issued in six denominations, including a tenth of a celt - in case people want to buy a cup of tea.

Somerset is an alternative kind of place. It includes Avalon LETS, so it has to be. Enough people have made LETS part of their lives for it to be making a marginal but real difference to quality of life. Even so, it's going to be hard to make the celt work.
This requires a leap of belief on the part of the organisers, the local authorities and the people who use the currency. That's hard to do, even in a rural economy that is steadily being depleted of its conventional assets.
But the rewards of a regional currency that allows communities across the West Country to support each other in providing for their own needs would be enormous.

It might even provide the basis for an agricultural system that supplies local needs, rather than an increasingly unreliable export market. And that's very exciting.

Because these rural towns and villages have assets. They have farm land, crops, know-how and people with skills. They just find that, increasingly, the global market doesn't assign those things any monetary value at all.
In those circumstances you need something to exchange with. As Michael Linton said about the original Canadian LETS: running out of money in these circumstances is like saying I can't measure this house because I've run out of inches.

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	Linking it all up in the west country Town & Country Planning, June 2001 Local currencies sometimes seem like a neat idea that came from nowhere during the recession in the early 1990s - filling the pages of magazines like Country Living with the idea of bartering aromatherapy and what they tended to call 'pre-owned' clothes. They were known as LETS - as they still are, of course - standing for Local Exchange and Trading Systems. But they were actually the latest manifestation of a long tradition. The idea of local currencies were actually a Great Depression idea, flourishing in central Europe, Canada and the USA - exactly the same places that embraced LETS first in the 1990s. The Swiss barter system Wir, now over 70 years old and with a turnover equivalent to £12 billion a year, began then -was the only one to survive all the way through. Then as now, Wir provides very low interest credit to small businesses, especially in the building and restaurant trade. It helped them survive in communities without enough conventional cash to bring people together with the work that needs doing. The other Depression currencies collapsed, banned by President Roosevelt on his first day in office. But the ideas survived among a few North American enthusiasts, popping up in the occasional experiment in the 1970s, until two Canadian pioneers managed to stitch together a new idea of mutual credit in a local community - both in Vancouver. David Weston's Community Exchange and Michael Linton's LETS have spread around the world over the past decade. They have, if we're honest, found it hard sometimes to put down sustainable roots in the UK as local economy building tools. But, as the recent Rowntree research shows, they are very successful at rebuilding communities, and keeping people in networks. They have also been very successful in three kind of places at least - in inner cities, funded by local authority anti-poverty strategies, in Scotland and in the West Country. Let's leave the first two aside for another day and concentrate on the third, because Somerset County Council has just published a report about developing the idea of local currencies as a way of protecting the local economies in this predominantly rural county. It's called Let's Make Time. Somerset escaped foot and mouth up to a point, compared to the carnage in neighbouring Devon, but the local economies are suffering in the same way as they are in rural areas all over the UK. They have money seeping out to the utilities, supermarkets and distant multinationals, rather than being used over and over again creating local wealth. The report was presented to local currency people in the small village of Compton Dundon, and jolly good fun it was - as it happens, the first beautiful day of the year. And it raises the question of whether LETS could ever grow to become an economic force in the region in the same way that Wir does in Swtizerland. It turns out that the 35 LETS currencies in the West Country - using names like the 'shuttle' (Frome), the 'truckle' (West Mendip) and the 'brock' (South Somerset) - are already working out how to do this. Starting at the Glastonbury Festival last year, they have been meeting to work out what a regional link-up would look like, taking advice from the highly successful LETS currency that now covers south west Australia, where they can even pay local taxes in local currency. The answer, they believe, is a new currency called the celt - this is after all Celtic country. It will be issued as a paper currency, the size of a £5 note, which can be bought in return for whichever LETS currency people use. And it will be issued in six denominations, including a tenth of a celt - in case people want to buy a cup of tea. Somerset is an alternative kind of place. It includes Avalon LETS, so it has to be. Enough people have made LETS part of their lives for it to be making a marginal but real difference to quality of life. Even so, it's going to be hard to make the celt work. This requires a leap of belief on the part of the organisers, the local authorities and the people who use the currency. That's hard to do, even in a rural economy that is steadily being depleted of its conventional assets. But the rewards of a regional currency that allows communities across the West Country to support each other in providing for their own needs would be enormous. It might even provide the basis for an agricultural system that supplies local needs, rather than an increasingly unreliable export market. And that's very exciting. Because these rural towns and villages have assets. They have farm land, crops, know-how and people with skills. They just find that, increasingly, the global market doesn't assign those things any monetary value at all. In those circumstances you need something to exchange with. As Michael Linton said about the original Canadian LETS: running out of money in these circumstances is like saying I can't measure this house because I've run out of inches.
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