Michael Moynihan: Keeping businesses alive - a Cork currency?

Michael Moynihan ponders the possibility of a Cork currency

Cork shoppers would be more inclined to spend local, and spend more, if they had their own currency. File picture. 

As you journey around the country, I’m sure you’ve seen the signs, all of which carry some variant on the following message: To keep the town in business, keep your business in the town.

This admirable sentiment aims to keep businesses operating in towns and villages of all sizes everywhere in Ireland, and it’s a message which resonates in every corner of the country — now more than ever.

The challenge, to keep your money in the town, is trickier than it seems. 

Local businesses traditionally recycle more money in their communities than the branches of national or international companies, but between the attractions of online shopping, the lure of large-scale shopping centres, and the devastation of the pandemic, there’s no shortage of challenges to those local businesses.

It’s no different in the larger cities, of course. 

Just because there are more options in the high street/shopping centre there are no guarantees your money stays within the city limits as opposed to travelling off as pure profit to some shell company in the Bahamas.

I have an answer for Cork when it comes to retaining that revenue, however, and that answer comes from the town of Tenino, in Washington State.

Tenino is one of a growing number of towns which now prints its own money for use within its own local area.

I came across this as a Bloomberg story recently, and further investigation showed how simply it works. 

The town prints timber money — seriously — on a 19th-century letterpress and the notes (planks? splinters?) are given to hard-pressed residents.

Valued the same as regular dollars, this timber money can be exchanged at businesses throughout the town — “everywhere from grocery stores to gas stations and child care centers”, according to the story — but is only honoured within the town.

Tenino isn’t alone, either. 

Not only are towns all across America getting in touch with them to find out how to organise their own local currency, but the story reported that “3,500 to 4,500 such systems have been recorded in more than 50 countries across the world... Some complementary currencies aim to protect local independent businesses. 

"Some promote more equal and sustainable visions of society. Others have been founded in response to economic crises when traditional financial systems have ground to a halt. 

"As the coronavirus pandemic brings on a wave of social and economic tumult, all three challenges appear to be in play at once”. 

Sustainable

This is all very well, of course, and a more equal and sustainable vision of society is something we can all sign up to.

As a short-term measure, or even a permanent innovation, there’s a lot to be said for this kind of initiative. Once you sort out the agreed value of the local currency — it’s usually tied roughly to the value of the national currency, whatever that is — then there are clear benefits.

The money exchanged for local goods and services stays within the locality, which generates more value for those providing the goods and services, obviously, but there are other positives as well.

For one thing, by definition, it drives custom towards local retailers. 

If you can’t spend those function vouchers anywhere else, then you’ve got to go local and stay local.

For another, it emphasises and underlines a sense of local self-sufficiency and identity.

You don’t have to go up/down/over the road because it’s all there in your own place, where you can spend in a way that directly helps your friends, relatives, and neighbours.

In addition to the above, it projects a terrific image far beyond the locality: it tells outsiders that the town/area/city concerned is proactive and innovative, not content to sit around in apathy, but energised and committed to its own survival and success by finding ways to boost itself.

At a macro level, the local currency has another inbuilt defence mechanism. 

It can’t be manipulated by currency speculators looking for a quick return, consequences be damned: its limited appeal and circulation is an inherent protection against those seeking to toy with the international markets.

There’s one significant drawback, one I raise here in the Cork context because I know in my heart of hearts it’s the single biggest obstacle in the way of creating a local currency (the Lee? the Leera? Leero?).

Whose face would be put on the Cork currency?

It doesn’t matter how you slice it, this is the question which I think would have to be answered before any progress could be made in this area.

My thoughts are that we could see an irretrievable balkanisation of our new financial system depending on one’s alignment according to Patrick St.

Directly north of the river, I think it’s between Jack Lynch and Mother Jones for the notes. 

If we’re happy to accept a five and 10 Leero note as the standard denominations then both can be accepted.

Going southside, I’m inclined to divide the honours between Mary Elmes and Edward Mulhare when it comes to the same notes (note: appeals will not be considered).

Complicated

This, however, is where it gets complicated. Once you start breaking Cork down into its composite parts, then the individual quartiers and neighbourhoods start to agitate for even more autonomy, and the most visible sign of that is a currency that’s even more bespoke.

Say you want to allow the northeastern corner of the city its proper banknotes, then who are you happy to see there — Roy Keane and Fiona Shaw?

Take it one stage further (and a couple of miles southwest) and you’re into the Middle Parish. 

Who are the figures popping up on the fivers and tenners here — John Stanislaus Joyce and Seán Ó Faoláin?

Go directly west and you’re near the countryside in Bishopstown: Jimmy Barry-Murphy and the Frank and Walters? 

Turn around and go back along the river until you go over the Christy Ring bridge and land in Blackpool, where the choices are overwhelming, from James Barry to Walloo Dunlea.

The tyranny of choice writ large, but nothing which can’t be overcome with goodwill and an openness to compromise.

What might be more difficult to accept for Cork people would be a nagging sense that the city is not the first to adopt this measure.

If you read Liam Cahill’s book Forgotten Revolution: Limerick Soviet 1919: a Threat to British Power in Ireland, then you’ll see that was the year the ordinary people of Limerick rose and took control of their city. 

Among the measures introduced was their own currency, with the notes signed by treasurer James Casey.

The Soviet only lasted a couple of weeks, but a century on it looms behind a very significant question: would Cork people accept a currency if they felt Limerick had beaten them to the punch?

I’m inclined to think they’d be dubious enough about being seen as followers rather than leaders. I’m just not sure I’d put my money on it.