a serviceable substitute

the posterous of gary lawrence murphy 
« Back to blog

The Brixton Pound

The Brixton Pound (B£) is a local currency launching in September 2009. This is a practical way for local people to vote with our wallets for a strong and diverse Brixton economy. It will be a complementary currency, working alongside (not replacing) pounds sterling, for use by independent local businesses and individuals trading within Brixton.

Brixton will be the third Transition Town to have its own currency, following the Totnes Pound in Devon and Lewes Pound in Sussex both of which have been very successful and received national media coverage. Brixton will be the first part of London to have its own currency and the first urban area in the UK.

As a big-mouth futurist, I get questions. People wanted to know the way out of the International Banking Conspiracy, people asked me how we could escape the downward spiral of unemployment, rising inflation and debt debt debt. People asked me what could the people of a small rural region do to salve what their overlord governments refuse to address. And what did I say? I said "Scrip".

That was years ago. That was months ago.That was just weeks ago. And I was right.

Loading mentions Retweet

Comments (4)

Jul 19, 2009
dgcmagazine said...
100% Correct. That Lewes pound already has multiple denominations they are growing fast. We watch waiting to see if Brixton has similar success. Good call on the scrip.

Mark Herpel
editor@CCmag.net

Jul 19, 2009
garym @teledyn said...
and the great irony: the Bank of England outlawing Ben Franklin's Colonial Scrip sparked the 1776 Revolution! Prior to that move by the bank, the American colonies enjoyed full employement and great prosperity, so on a tour of Britain they asked old Ben why and he explained how, when they needed public works, they simply printed more scrip and put people to work! Well print your own money INDEED!! The Bank was not amused and scrip was quickly cancelled and within 5 years the colonies were bathed in 20% unemployment and spiraling inflation. "We could tolerate another tax on our tea," writes Ben, "But ..."
Jul 24, 2009
maymurphy said...
A barter community does(at least did) exist in Saugeen shores. I don't think they use any currency. It is a trading system. Isn't Canadian Tire money a form of scrip?
Jul 24, 2009
garym @teledyn said...
Currency is essential, as the credit has to be transferable in itself and diverse things weighted in value. Fixing a car can never be traded for loaves of bread, the bread would go bad long before you'd got your worth from it. I've heard that Canadian Tire money is used as scrip in a great many far-northern communities, but in itself it is only useful at a Canadian Tire, and the denominations are a joke. Nonetheless, it is a currency in some locations and almost serves the same purpose: to be truly viable, you must be able to buy groceries with it, pay your utility bill or land taxes, use it at full face value to buy anything that is locally sourced, and be able to barter it on some (usually microscopic) exchange rates towards outside goods and services (such as federal taxes ;)

Leave a comment...

 
Got an account with one of these? Login here, or just enter your comment below.
Posterous-login    twitter