CFE in the Irish Times November 2012

FREE ECONOMY: In a recessionary world, PATRICK FREYNE examines how to get goods and services without resorting to cash

With our complicated financial system and highly technologized society, it’s unlikely that barter will make a widespread return. The sentences “I will swap you three hens for an iPhone 5” or “I will kill a wolf for a go of your Xbox” are unlikely to be crossing many lips.

In the wake of the financial crisis, in an era of tightened belts and purse-strings, people have been trying to find new ways of getting what they need. Around the country local currencies and favour exchanges are popping up, allowing people to exchange goods and services and also helping to bind communities together.

“We didn’t invent the idea of local exchange and trading schemes,” says Miriam Cotton one of the founders of the Clonakilty Favour Exchange. “Time banks were originally conceived as a way of storing up services for yourself for when you were ill or old. They started in America and Canada particularly. The idea was that people would contribute something back into the community earning themselves care for when they were older. We’ve taken that idea but we’ve made it more immediate. You can earn back your time anytime you like.”

How does it work? “People can exchange whatever skill or labour they have with anybody else in the scheme. You don’t have to make direct swaps so if you were offering to write articles for people you could do that for one person but you might be able to use the credits to get a haircut from somebody else entirely. There’s a central record kept of who’s doing what all the time. There’s a debit limit and credit limit. The currency we call ‘the favour’ and that’s the equivalent of 15 minutes of time. Everyone’s time is equal within the exchange regardless of what they’re offering. It’s a response to the recession but it is, as much as anything, a community-building scheme.”

Clonakilty community

My most satisfying and enjoyable bartering experience was with the Clonakilty Favour Exchange. I uploaded a profile (with the help of Miriam Cotton) and soon I was helping Austrian computer programmer Christian Graninger draft a press release for his soon to be published book of recipes.

Graninger has helped out many residents with computer problems and has, in return, been given practical help with his book and received lifts and haircuts.

I also got some pet advice from Clonakilty based vet Aisling McAuliffe. My household features a very old, white cat with a number of medical ailments. McAuliffe, who has found the favour exchange useful for babysitting services and for arranging lifts, gave me some tips on the care of a crotchety old cat.

Patrick Freyne

Read the full article plus interview with Moneyless Man Mark Boyle here