Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

21
This small­scale Mexican currency has been in existence since 1996. It was started by
ecologists, including architect Luis Lopezllera, who had previously founded a cooperative
development centre in the neighbourhood of Colonia Tlaxpana in Mexico City
and who had travelled to France, the US and Canada to study local currencies. The tlaloc
was named after an Aztec rain god. 55
The currency is a mix of LETS and time dollars, but with printed money. The
teguio, a currency for smaller transactions, supplements the tlaloc and is worth one
Mexican peso. One tlaloc is the equivalent of one hour of work, 25 pesos or US$3. More
valuable services attract higher numbers of tlalocs per hour, but the ratio can only be as
high as 4 tlalocs per hour. Six denominations of notes are issued, each with ten spaces on
the back for signatures.
A directory is printed and members begin to trade. Instead of phoning a central
office to record every transaction on a computer, as with LETS, the system uses currency
notes issued by a member. On joining, each new member receives 15 tlaloc notes for
trading. During a transaction, the seller then signs ‘accepted’ and the buyer signs ‘spent’
in the boxes provided on the back of the money. Transactions can also take place in a
combination of national currency and tlalocs. Eventually, when all ten slots have been
filled in, the note is returned to the central office, where the original issuer is credited
and the final purchaser is debited.
The tlaloc system is therefore a low­tech mutual credit system using notes, and works
without the nuisance of having to phone a central office for every transaction.
Bia Kud Chum
Between March and June 2000, before it was quashed by the country’s central bank, rural
Thailand had a very sophisticated and successful local currency. At this time the
information age had started its ascent and the positive side of globalisation was really
becoming apparent: the bia system was created with Dutch, Canadian and Mexican
complementary currency expertise, and funded by a Japanese non­profit organisation.
The unit of currency was named after the bia, a local shell, and the region of Kud Chum,
an area ten hours’ drive from Bangkok in northeast Thailand.
After much planning by the international group, bia notes were issued in several
denominations to unit members of the Bia Bank. Unit members (a unit could consist of a
whole group of co­responsible individuals, usually a household) could borrow up to 500
bia interest­free from the bank and use it for trading in markets. The loan then had to be
repaid before more could be withdrawn. The notes were decorated with drawings of