The Brixton Pound featured at an Islamic Finance conference in Norwich yesterday. B£’s Josh Ryan-Collins was invited to speak about the currency to the local Muslim community who are interested in developing a complementary currency in Norwich backed, not by sterling as the B£ is, but by Gold and Silver.
Gold and silver-backed currencies are seeing a reawakening in the Muslim world, particular in South East Asia where financial crises since the late 1990s have led to a collapse in confidence in paper money. Following the Asian currency crisis of 1997, then Prime Minister of Malaysia proposed introduction of Islamic gold dinar as currency for international trade in the Muslim world. It was intended to replace the US dollar and, as a gold-based currency, provide a medium of exchange more stable than the dollar. Mahathir announced that Malaysia was to start using the dinar in mid-2003, but the plan was abandoned when he lost the leadership. Despite this, markets and ordinary citizens trade with gold as an alternative currency throughout Malaysia – see www.publicgold.com.my. And in the UK, organisations such as the Gold Dinar Exchange and FREE are challenging the monopoly of the big banks on trade and currency.
As the Euro and Sterling continue to be buffeted by the financial crisis and enormous national public deficits, the time may be coming to consider backing the B£ with something real… Brixton sauce perhaps?
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“The Brixton Pound featured at an Islamic Finance conference in Norwich yesterday. B£’s Josh Ryan-Collins was invited to speak about the currency to the local Muslim community who are interested in developing a complementary currency in Norwich backed, not by sterling as the B£ is, but by Gold and Silver.”
Jct: I think basing one’s currency on a scarce metal isn’t as bright as basing one’s currency on an hour of neighbor’s labor and must point out that the Islamic Party of Great Britain’s members not only supported LETS time-based currency but also helped start interest-free LETS banks in the UK. So not only is yellow and silver rock-based currency compliant with Islam but time-based currency too. And though few have any yellow or silver rock to pledge at the bank, all have plenty of time to pledge at the timebank.
I don’t see the point of mixing a “real economy based currency” with the gold standard as one of the options in the “financial economy”.
The only thing that is required is an exchange rate with a normal currency and a “common yardstick” across “mutual credit currencies”. This would be an hour of time rather than a gram of gold. So the exchange rate with an hour of time is required rather than a “backing” by time. And that hour of time does NOT need to (but could) be the minimum hourly rate that should be paid for any service.
The whole point of LETS money as an “accountancy unit” is that it does not have value in itself, but only records the value of a product or service exchanged. Thus it is truly a “medium of exchange” rather than a “store of value”. The value is the real product and the real service. Not the “real gold”!
I know it’s difficult to distinguish between ‘money’ and ‘currency’ and we tend to extrapolate from existing economic thinking rather than think outside the box and establish our own rules.
More on http://www.bartercard.wordpress.com.
Sabine, Organiser, Forum for Stable Currencies and founder of the first LETS in London in 1989
http://forumforstablecurrencies.info