Totnes pound

A local economy is like a leaky bucket - wealth comes in and as soon as it is spent at a shop or business that has more connections outside Totnes than inside Totnes, that money disappears.

Local money doesn’t leak through the holes – it bounces around inside the local economy and maintains wealth.

Local money helps us think about our local economy, enquiring where our money goes once we spend it and finding ways to keep it from leaking out.

If we use our money for production and consumption closer to home, we're going to pay more attention to how those products are made, and the waste streams that result from them. It's similar logic to the premise that the Bhopal disaster in India would not have happened if the battery factory had been in the back garden of the Chief Exec of Union Carbide.

How it works

• You buy Totnes Pounds through one of the 6 Issuing Points in Totnes at £1 = T£1
• You can spend it at any of the 70+ shops or businesses in Totnes that display the “Accepted Here” logo
• You can get: food, taxi rides, clothing, household goods, bike repairs, haberdashery, shoes, artists materials, books

Timeline of the Totnes Pound

• Phase 1
  • May 2007
  • 300 Totnes Pounds given into circulation at a "Transition and Economics" event in the town
  • 18 shops accepted it
• Phase 2
  • August 2007
  • 6,000 Pounds sold into circulation (T£10 for £9.50)
  • 50 shops/businesses accepted it
• Phase 3
  • January 2008
  • Phase 2 pounds nominally expired (we honoured them for at least 18 months after this)
  • replaced by new design of t£1 note
  • 6,500 in circulation (T£10 for £10)
  • 75 shops/businesses accept it 

How local currencies have helped communities

• There is a rich history of local currencies throughout the world
• In the US in the Great Depression, many local currencies helped communities survive tough economic times
• In Europe between WWI and WWII, Worgl in Austria lifted itself out of povery with a local currency – the only town in Austria that flourished during that period
• In Argentina when the national currency collapsed in 1990s, local currencies sprung into action and helped maintain wealth and health
• In USSR during their collapse, the used VODKA as currency!

What it has inspired

• Totnes’ currency experiment has inspired other towns to take this bold step:
  • Lewes
  • Brixton
  • Stroud
  • Cardiff
  • Bristol
• In Italy, town mayors are resisting the economic hardships imposed by their government by launching local currencies
• Transition Towns around the world are thinking about how a local currency might help them

In the future...

The Totnes Pound, as a physical currency, is just the first small step into figuring out what kind of economic mechanisms are needed to support a robust local economy. There are lots of other developments being discussed:

• Electronic currency using the internet and mobile phones
• Working with local credit unions
• new T£5 and T£10 notes using a local designer

If you want to get involved, send an email to ben@totnespound.org

Inspirations

The works of Bernard Leitar and the stories of local currencies that helped communities in times of stress.

Outcomes so far

Huge awareness raising tool, not just for the initiative but for the ideas of transition generally. It adds to the sense of local distinctiveness and is very timely practice at a small scale of mechanisms that might be needed very badly in the not too distant future.

We're not under any illusions about transforming the local economy. Here's why.

• number of households in Totnes = 3000
• guess at the average household income = £20k
• Totnes economy = £60,000,000
• appx number of Totnes pounds in circulation = 6000
• therefore the proportion of Totnes economy that is represented by Totnes pounds = 0.1%

This is a very small amount, but that's OK. Local currencies come into their own when there's a shortage of the national currency, and what's crucial is that the communities who might experience this shortage have experimented with different models and can switch across to them with minimal disruption. 

Unexpected outcomes

It's harder work than we imagined to keep it going, and there's an inevitable sag in use that comes after the first novelty phase. It has however maintained a high level of affection with the traders in the town.

The level of interest in the Totnes Pound took all of us by surprise. It featured globally, from the Buenos Aires Herald to the Norwegian equivalent of the Financial Times.

It's also helped larger more ambitious projects with local currencies to get funding - eg the Bristol Pound, a local currency system that involves online and mobile phone transfer of money, a physical currency and accounts held in the local Credit Union.