Local Currency/Credits to encourage local spending...

Just read about a New England town that has convinced people to invest in local currency that isn't good anywhere besides that town.

This is one way the colonies, cities and corporations in my novel keep profits within their borders. Cash is worth more because you can buy anything with it, but some things within borders can't be bought unless you exchange it - for a loss.

New age town embraces dollar alternative
Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:50AM EDT
By Scott Malone

GREAT BARRINGTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - A walk down Main Street in this New England town calls to mind the pictures of Norman Rockwell, who lived nearby and chronicled small-town American life in the mid-20th Century.

So it is fitting that the artist's face adorns the 50 BerkShares note, one of five denominations in a currency adopted by towns in western Massachusetts to support locally owned businesses over national chains.

"I just love the feel of using a local currency," said Trice Atchison, 43, a teacher who used BerkShares to buy a snack at a cafe in Great Barrington, a town of about 7,400 people. "It keeps the profit within the community."

...

"BerkShares are cash, and so people have transferred their cash habits to BerkShares," said Susan Witt, executive director of the E.F. Schumacher Society, a nonprofit group that set up the program. "They might have 50 in their pocket, but not 150. They're buying their lunch, their coffee, a small birthday present."