The funny money revolution begins

Financial Notes

WHERE DOES money come from? There was a time when most God-fearing Britons felt the pound had been put on earth for their special use, backed by the golden vaults Bank of England - and many of us are still under the impression that this is true. Actually the pound cut itself loose from gold long ago, and we haven't been able to exchange our notes for anything except other notes since 1931. These days, the pounds in our pockets are backed by our collective belief that the Government will pay the National Debt.

The trouble is that the pound, along with the other currencies of the world, is connected to a wild global system, and all currencies derive their direction from the hidden hand of the market. But the hidden hand is emotional and unpredictable; its decisions are based on hope, fear, mood patterns and much else besides. It's this very unpredictability and changeability which provides the traders with their profits.

It's a virtual monster, without concrete existence. When the stock market lost pounds 51bn on Wednesday, the end of the day left the value of British companies in tatters, but their other assets - their personnel, bricks and mortar, possibilities and plans - exactly as they had been eight hours before. That's the peculiar thing about the modern world economy, it is - as Diane Coyle put it - "weightless". And it has little or nothing to do with ordinary life or ordinary trade.

At least 95 per cent of the currencies which flood across the planet - $1,500bn a day - have nothing to do with trade at all. It is speculation, but speculation which can have a devastating effect on people's lives. The truth is that the world financial system isn't actually there for us at all, yet we are connected to it.

So what can we do if we wake up one morning and find that the pound is a limp shadow of its former self? Or, just as important, what happens if we wake up and find ourselves with the euro - as we probably will, for lots of very good reasons - but only one continental interest rate, which doesn't suit most of us very well?

One answer is that we are going to have to create our own money. And, although that seems a radical concept at first sight, you can see the beginnings of this revolution already happening.

You can see it in the 400 or so Lets exchange schemes around the UK or the innovative printed currency called Hours in Ithaca in upstate New York, accepted by most local businesses and backed by the local chamber of commerce. You can see it in the time banks emerging across the United States and Japan, or the French Sel system or the Italian Banco de Tempo. But you can also see it emerging in the world of international business. Until recently, Northwest Airlines paid its entire world-wide PR account in Air Miles. They still sell blocks of Frequent Flyer points to charities, which then trade them on at a profit. And anybody who has used Sainsbury's points or Midland Choice points is using the beginning of alternative currencies which exert a little independence from the world's stock exchanges.

This is the revolution which was predicted a generation ago by the great economist F.A. Hayek, when he called for the "de-nationalisation of money", and it is made possibly partly because of computers, which allow us to use different aspects of our lives. But this is also the start of a kind of protestant revolution for money. Just as the early Protestants did away with the need for priests to intercede between them and God, so these "new alchemists" are doing without bankers. Not for everything of course. But if necessary, any group of people - even a handful of neighbours - have the wealth among them to issue some kind of money to help them get through the difficult times. We don't have to wait around for the banks to do it: we can do it ourselves.

David Boyle is the author of `Funny Money: in search of alternative cash' (HarperCollins, 18 January, pounds 14.99)