Reinventing Money : Monetary Experiments and Trust Creation in the Argentinean Barter Club (1980-2009).
Abstract: This is a study of the Argentinean Complementary Currency System el Club de Trueque (CT), which during its peak in the year of 2002 provided for its 2.5 million members. Focus is put on its initial years of 1995-1996 and the monetary experiments that would lead to a means of payment that partly would substitute the Argentinean peso during the convertibility crisis. This essay explains how the CT managed to create trust in their currency. Although the CT is a well researched phenomenon, this thesis offers some new information. First of all, the monetary development within the CT was not only driven by a practical need to lower transaction costs due to fast expansion—as previously assumed—rather, a confidence crisis was from the very start crucial for its development. Another important discovery is that although the club was created during a period of strong recession and high rates of unemployment, personal economic problems did not, in fact, seem to be the motivation behind its invention; rather the motives were based on a criticism against the functions of the contemporary economic system.
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