How to get out of the crisis, globalization, and the Euro-dollar grip? And maybe find your own, thriving, local economy? Other than financial manoeuvres, there is someone who has really cut off the bull's head and created his own currency.
Since the arrival of the euro, and especially with the onset of the financial crisis, there are not a few villages, cities or even regions in Europe that have reinvented a currency and a local economy.
The last on the list is just a small town in our country. AND' Filey, in the province of Frosinone, 600 souls and since last August also 20 thousand tickets printed for the new local coinage: the Fiorito, with an effigy of the mayor, Luca Sellari, and even self-proclamation as a "principality". Il Fiorito has a fixed exchange rate: it is worth 0,50 euro.
The move, certainly provocative, was made for protest against the government and to regain full autonomy by avoiding the suppression of the Municipality and the unification with another center as envisaged by the latest economic manoeuvre.
And the Principality? Another gimmick by the mayor, who would have already chosen the new "prince": "The will - explains the mayor - is to do Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy prince of our principality. In the next few days we will invite him to visit our country to get to know it and become aware of our project". Proposal already bounced off by the person concerned: “Me prince of Filettino? Thank you for having thought of me, but frankly I see it as a very complicated and hardly practicable hypothesis".
But, as we said, Filettino (and its Fiorito) was only the latest case. Already in 2003, a small town in Bavaria had put the “Chiemgauer”. In that case, the tickets (in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50) had the same value as the euro and were usable in a circuit of members of the project, who are now 617. And the idea, born just a year after the baptism of the euro, it has already made several converts in Germany, where around sixty local currencies already exist.
Even in France the phenomenon has taken hold: in January 2010, the Abeille (literally: the bee) appeared in Villeneuve-sur-Lot, while the city of Toulouse (half a million inhabitants) it has even launched the Sol-Violette, defined as "ethical currency", created to promote "an economic development of solidarity". Even a region, the Ardeche du Sud, has adopted its own currency, the Luciole, in order to "pave the way for an economy that is more respectful of human beings and the environment".
But not only in Europe: in the United States, in the Berkshire region (state of Massachusetts), some associations created a parallel monetary system in 2006, the BerkShares. To date, even more than 400 companies accept this currency and more than 2,7 million BerkShares are in circulation, exchangeable at 0,95 for 1 dollar.
But is the phenomenon only provocative and cultural or could it also have real repercussions on the economy of those countries? He's already asked that Deutsche Bundes Bank, which in a report published in 2007 ruled out the possibility that the new cones (which were circulating at the time for a value of just 200 euros) could actually compete with the euro. Small detail, however, in the meantime the various local currencies have reached the figure of almost one million euros in circulation. Impact on the economy still irrelevant, but certainly growing strongly.
Also the Bank of France has substantially diminished the effective relevance of these parallel economic systems, ruling: "These currencies are not prohibited by law, but neither are they exchangeable: they are intended for use in a closed circuit".
Watch the news on: Le Figaro
