Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

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collateral, or as warehouse receipts. It can also be spent into existence by an
authority that promises to accept it for taxes or a business that will accept it for
goods.
Because notes and coins are given their value by the community accepting them, it
is the community that should actually own the money supply. Apart from being
responsible for its design, the printer of the note does not endow money with
value.
This has implications for national currencies. When banks issue money as a
loan, the borrower usually spends it in the form of a bank cheque. This cheque is
given value by the people who accept it, not by the banks that issued it. The claim
that banks ‘own’ the debt is therefore quite wrong, for they would only do so if
their owners were the same community of people that gave the money value – in
other words, if they were community­owned banks.
Money can be printed and distributed by an individual, a community, a city,
a country or group of countries, or an international authority, and it can serve
communities of any size. Whatever the agency, it is that agency’s community that
is going to accept it for payment. Commodity­backed money can be issued by a
private firm or a group of traders who pledge to honour all vouchers or tokens
created.
Money can be also issued by a big employer who spends it into existence. For
example, in 1932 the mayor of Wörgl paid council workers partly in local work
certificates (see page 000), and in 1816 the Guernsey Island government paid the
workers building the local market with Guernsey pounds (see page 000). These
issuing authorities must, in return, accept the money when it is offered for