"You are right," said Norrena. "And much was done along other lines
when the people came to understand that the prime factor in the
overthrow of the profit system was to avoid the use of money in the
transaction of business, in every manner possible. In some localities,
farther east, the use of what was known as New Occasion Notes was
introduced to facilitate exchange without money. The shoemaker, for
instance, would give his note, payable in shoes, for groceries. The
physician would give his note for groceries payable in professional
services. The grocery man had no personal use for either shoes or the
services of a physician, but he needed coal, and the coal dealer needed
both a shoemaker and a physician, and exchanged coal for the notes.
The exchange enabled the shoemaker and the physician to get groceries,
the grocery man to get coal, and the coal dealer to get shoes and
the services of a physician, and all without the use of a cent of
money. The use of these notes became so common, that to still further
facilitate exchanges, clearing houses were established where persons
who held notes payable in something they did not need, could exchange
them for notes that were payable in something they did need. This
system of exchanging New Occasion Notes grew into a general collecting
agency, and it was found that among the large number of collections
placed in its hands, a great percentage cancelled each other, and
balances could ordinarily be put in the shape of New Occasion Notes
redeemable in some kind of products or services. As a means of enabling
people to get out of debt, and at the same time facilitating exchange
and decreasing the demand for money, these agencies proved to be most
effective. The Patrons of Equity contemplated the persistent use of
every method that could be devised to minimize the demand for money
with a view to its ultimate elimination as a medium of exchange, by
the establishment of equity between producers and consumers. They had
learned that money of any kind could be inflated and contracted for
selfish purposes, and therefore it was a false measure and could not
be depended upon to mete out even handed justice to the people who used
it as a medium of exchange."
"I can plainly see," I said, "that the field of labor for such an
organisation in the outer world is practically unlimited, and I want
you to furnish me with the details of its plan of organization, as a
model for a similar one for use in my book."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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