THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

these assumptions, we can sometimes discover a wealth of new
insights. Let us take a brief look at each one of them.
National currencies
We now have trouble imagining any currency other than those
issued by a given country, or in the case of the euro, a group of
countries. However, it is useful to remember that the concept of a
nation-state itself is only a couple of centuries old." Therefore, the
vast majority of historical currencies were, in fact, private issues
made by the sovereign or some other local authority.
However, if you want to create a national consciousness, the
creation of a national currency is one of the more powerful tools
available. It makes evident in everyday life the boundaries that are
otherwise visible only in an atlas. In a recent example, during the
break-up of the Soviet Union, one of the first acts of the newly
independent republics was to issue their own currencies.' A common
currency translates into a common information system, so that its
inputs and outputs can be measured and compared across the parts.'
Sharing a common currency creates an invisible, yet very effective,
bond between all sectors of a society, and draws an information
boundary between 'us' and 'them'. Similarly, the euro - the single
currency that, as of January 1999, officially replaced national
currencies in 11 European countries has as one of its goals the
creation of a more unified European consciousness.
The ubiquity of national currencies should not make us forget that
during the few recent centuries when national currencies were
issued, there was always another transnational currency available for
global trade, namely gold. The only exception to this rule has been in
the past twenty-five years or so, when one particular national
currency - the US dollar has become the global currency. This