Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

19
13
Privately Issued Currencies
Quote to come 1
This chapter will describe some examples of business­issued currencies,
starting with those that are backed by the retailer’s promise of redemption for
goods or services. Tradesmen’s tokens in 19th­century New Zealand are an
example of such a currency, as are the ‘deli dollars’ used by a Massachusetts
business to fund capital development. Next, I look at modern loyalty voucher
schemes such as New Zealand’s Fly Buys points and AA Reward points, which
are redeemable for a wide variety of goods and services. Finally, I discuss two
recent fiat currencies backed by the promise of the retailers who accept them.
These examples, from the Chatham Islands and Queensland, Australia, have
not been fully democratic, and the entrepreneurs have basically reaped the
seigniorage, although in each case there have been attempts to share the profits.
Pre­paid Voucher Schemes
Tradesmen’s Tokens
In New Zealand in the 1850s, coins and notes were in short supply, so many
local firms issued their own attractive coins as tokens or vouchers. Called
tradesmen’s tokens, these were issued in almost every town in the country and
were readily accepted by the public. From their introduction in 1857 by draper
Archibald Clark and grocer Mark Somerville of Auckland, and by chemist A. S.
Wilson and general merchants Day and Mieville of Dunedin, the tokens gained
in popularity. In From Beads to Bank Notes, R. P. Hargreaves says, ‘Over the
following 24 years a further 42 firms issued tokens, the last being issued in
Christchurch by a musical firm Milner and Thompson in 1881.’ 2 By then, there
was sufficient national currency in circulation and the tokens were no longer
needed, and by 1897 they were no longer legal tender.
Deli Dollars
Private currencies, or tokens promising delivery of service or goods in the
future, have the effect of being a loan from customers who trust the business or
businesses issuing the currency. Susan Witt, of the E. F. Schumacher Society in
Berkshire, Massachusetts, gives the following account of a local delicatessen’s
currency: