Now, of course, the forking from the experience of LETS does not deny the fundamental relatedness with the LETS experience. Undoubtedly, the idea that LETS schemes embody is similar to that of a local currency: to create a localised circuit of exchange that prevents wealth leaks. What something like the Transition Pound was able to do, however, in comparison to the LETS, was to remove some of the barriers that stood in the way of engagement of the everyday user of money in a LETS scheme. These barriers are sidestepped when that consumer is approached through a variation in an object (money) that he or she is already accustomed to, as he/she goes about purchasing what he/she needs. In other words, the Totnes Pound offers an alternative attachment on which to rely for completing an activity – shopping – that is already ingrained in the life of the consumers it is directed to. If we imagined it as a dramatic performance, it would be akin to one carried out in the town square, where many people happen to pass already, rather than in a secluded theatre where people have to make their way to. While the latter audience might be more dedicated, the former one is open for ‘capture’ by noticing something new and different that may interest them into the ramifications of that particular performance.
The history of the Totnes Pound unfolds through four different emissions. The first one was a printout modelled on old local notes that used to circulate in Totnes in the early nineteenth century. These were simply given out by Rob Hopkins and accepted by various shops without any backing (although the amount of the issue was extremely small, only three-hundred pounds). In this regard, the first ‘Totnes Pound’ was similar in some ways to a LETS scheme, as it was not backed by national currency but rather relied on the availability of a circle of traders and buyers available to be engaged by the new paper token. On a second issue, more notes were printed, this time in exchange for national currency, and in a smaller format to allow these to fit better in tills. However, they were issued below parity, meaning that consumers could buy 1 pound worth of goods at participating shops, with the Totnes Pounds being redeemable in pound sterling for only 95 pence. This was an attempt to increase the stickiness of the local notes, ensuring that people would not redeem them so easily, so that they would remain in circulation. However, the unexpected outcome of one such move was to discourage participating businesses from enabling complete payments in Totnes Pounds, which would have meant, upon redemption in pound sterling, them taking a 5% hit on the sale price. As a consequence, business owners began allowing only a percentage of the purchase price to be fulfilled with Totnes Pounds.32 This was also caused by the fact that, the currency being embodied only in paper notes, limited trading (if any at all) could take place between businesses. Hence, money would accumulate with them and they would then have to redeem it in sterling, effectively turning the exchange rate in a discount given to consumers. This shortcoming stemming from below-parity issue led to the third emission, consisting of another one-pound note (the design of which was further revamped to give a more money-like look) issued at parity with pound sterling.
During the writing of this book, a new, fourth issue, took place. This time it involved multiple denominations, an accompanying website advertising participating shops and discounts available to users of the pound, as well as plans to develop an electronic currency. In fact, the Totnes Pound was earmarked as a recipient of funding aimed at rolling out electronic currency technology, in partnership with the Bristol Pound scheme.33
In between these successive emissions, the experience in Totnes sparked emulation around other Transition initiatives, the most far-reaching of which have occurred in Bristol and Brixton. In either of these cases, paper notes were accompanied by an electronic infrastructure enabling payments by text, as well as direct money transfers through a web interface. Moreover, in Bristol, all accounts are held by the local credit union, hence benefitting from deposit protection insurance through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Despite the larger scale, both of these initiatives are still relatively minute compared to the size of the urban economies they are embedded in.
To return to Totnes, it is interesting to notice how – until funding was secured through a partnership with the Bristol Pound – an electronic currency had not been planned for the fourth issue of the Totnes Pound, due to its excessive cost. Indeed, the issuing of local and complementary currencies poses real questions of resourcing. Since the costs of printing and setting up payment systems cannot be recouped from the backing that is received in exchange for the currency upon its issue (this has to be held in order to ensure redeemability), the printing and design of notes has to be self-funded. This is done typically through a mix of grants, donations as well as by sale of numbered sets of notes for the collector market.
In ‘official’ presentations of alternative currency schemes, the focus is often on how, through the use of an alternative currency, more localised trade can occur and, therefore, the local circuit of economic exchange becomes less dependent on sourcing from outside and consequently more resilient. This is how alternative currencies ‘fit’ into the inaugural narrative of Transition as a transition ‘away’ from the conditions that make peak oil and climate change a threat to the biosphere and to human communities (complementary currencies seek to tackle elongated supply chains, which remain practicable only in a world thoroughly dependent on fossil fuels).
This orientation towards addressing peak oil and climate change, however, seems to be only partially borne out in practice. Suffice it to mention the remarks by Longhurst, a researcher involved in the launching of the Totnes Pound, who regrets that the organising team that recruited businesses into the scheme was not more forthcoming about the goal of building local resilience as a response to peak oil.34 Instead, the Totnes Pound might have mainly been understood as ‘a way to promote the town or as a local loyalty scheme’.35 This ambivalence, I suggest, goes at the heart of the problem that Transition faces as it unfolds: of sustaining everyday experiences (such as spending money) through the discursive and material resources that compose an emerging Transition culture. Correlative to this is the challenge of nurturing a parallel appreciation of the experiential coherence and continuity existing between different Transition practices; something that can set in motion further realisations and lifestyle changes (in other words, making sure that people doing the spending can become sensitised to other concerns that animate the development of Transition, such as – in this particular case – peak oil and climate change). Hence the self-consciousness, that Longhurst puts into words, about the degree to which the Totnes Pound offers not just a way to bring money, and the exchanges it affords, into Transition, but also to cue the wider milieu of Transition through money and consumption choices. Widening engagement with currency fulfils the first prong; the second one demands that the awareness obtained through use of the Totnes Pound enable inroads into the wider moving of Transition, so as to elicit a more encompassing shift in cultural attachments. An instance of this occurring was the meeting mentioned earlier, held by the Totnes Pound organising group. At the end of that meeting, a discussion ensued about the process by which it had been chaired, in the light of the ‘mindful’ meeting techniques that are one of the distinctive qualities of Inner Transition: here was a transaction that sharpened the perception of Inner Transition as a site of cultural elaboration that commands attention across the different domains of activity enfolded in the Transition milieu, including currency experimentation.
Another way in which something like the Totnes Pound has the potential to slowly challenge ‘taken for granted’ attachments and draw participants towards the wider set of commitments and concerns animating the journey of Transition, is by signposting a geography for ‘ethical trading’ on the high street.