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

Very few complementary currencies survived the turmoil and
reconstruction processes of World War II and the booming post-war
years. As we would expect, it is only when economic duress knocks
on the door that suddenly, like mushrooms under the appropriate
weather conditions, local systems reappear. Today's systems have,
therefore, reappeared primarily where unemployment has become
abnormally high for local reasons.
Figure 5.3 best summarises the dramatic growth of all types of
complementary currencies over the past decade. As recently as the
19809, there were fewer than 100 such currency systems in the world.
They multiplied by a factor of twenty over the past decade.
In the balance of this chapter and the next one we will have a look
at the different types of such complementary currencies as are
currently operational, and how they have been implemented in
specific countries.
Clarifying some distinctions
Before describing some of the contemporary examples of nontraditional
currencies, it is important to clarify some money
distinctions. In some of the literature on new currencies, confusion
has sometimes arisen between barter and complementary currencies.
Occasionally, barter is erroneously described as any exchange that
does not involve the 'normal' national currency. By definition, barter
is the exchange of goods or services without any form of currency.
Barter requires as a prerequisite that the two people involved each
have something that the other wants. In technical terms, the parties
need to have 'matching needs and resources'. This is a strong
constraint to the fluidity of exchanges. It is also why money was
invented as a medium of exchange in the first place.