Introduction

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- Interest-free credit may sound too good to be true but hundreds of people gain just that each year through Local Exchange Trading Systems - The Daily Telegraph, 6 Nov. 1993

The innovative concept of Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) has been designed to help revive local economies by complementing conventional money, thus addressing its problems and limitations. The basic principle is to trade goods and skills within a community without resorting to national currencies, yet not simply swapping on a one-to-one basis as when bartering. Simple yet efficient ideas, an ethical approach and intelligent promotion made up for the world-wide development of LETS, which are still confined to so-called alternative circles but have been attracting more and more mainstream media coverage thanks to their original and friendly image.

I had never heard about such a system when I moved to Manchester as part of the Erasmus European Exchange Programme and first read about it in an article by John VIDAL published in the Guardian on 12 March 1994 (1). I was seduced by the concept and chose to research on it for my final year's report. I contacted Siobhan Harpur, a member of Manchester LETS referred to in the article, and she enabled me to contact many people. I interviewed, telephoned and contacted various other people. I was also particularly fortunate in that Manchester was the location chosen for a large scale project of LETS development called LETSgo Manchester. Moreover, the system analyst who designed the concept of LETS was one of the initiators of LETSgo Manchester. He was in Manchester and I could interview him, which gave me access to first hand information on LETS development. I had great pleasure conducting my research work in Manchester in May and June 1994 and I met enthusiastic people. Since LETS is a subject which evolves a lot, I decided to update information before writing this report. I started sending letters in May 1995 but this proved unsuccessful in many cases. Despite reminders, many people did not reply even some who had been very helpful when I interviewed them. The few people I phoned proved very busy and I assume this is unfortunately the case for the others. I had problems contacting LETSgo but I eventually received important information from them. However, this was only a few days before submitting this report and I had to include this new data in my conclusion because my analysis had not taken it into account.

As the very idea of LETS might be unfamiliar to the reader, I decided to start this report with a comprehensive presentation of LETS explaining how they have been created and how they expended world-wide. I will then focus on the Manchester situation with a particular effort to offer up to date information when available. The last two sections will be devoted to analysing the success encountered by LETS. I will first assess the conventional global economy before concentrating on Local Exchange Trading Systems and finally I will conclude.

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Copyright Sidonie Seron 1995.
Permission to copy this document is granted on the following conditions:
Last Revised 21 March 1996 by Nigel Stewartof XTML