Hawaiian Kingdom Independence Blog

MauiTime Article on local currenty from a couple weeks ago that I just got around to reading…

This is something I’ve been interested in for a long time, and some years back I attended a workshop with Lynette and several other folks about the LETS system version of local currencies. At that time we tried a bit to get something started but it does take a real coordinated commitment to get it going, to be accepted by enough businesses that it reaches a critical mass.

But Maui is probably a good sized community to try it out. It’s large enough that you could more easily get enough participation to make it worthwhile, yet it’s small enough that there is still a strong sense of community, lots of people know each other, social networks are strong. And that’s very important because the equity backing the currency is basically trust in your neighbors.

So anyway, I think this is worth thinking about in general, but especially among those who believe in the sovereignty of the kingdom.

Pre-contact, the Hawaiian Islands operated largely under a subsistence economy, with elements of a barter system. As the plantation era took hold, currency became necessary. In the latter half of the 19th century—before annexation and statehood—Kamehameha III presided over the creation of the Hawaiian dala. Like the American dollar, the dala was made up of 100 units, called keneta. Unlike the American dollar, the dala was relatively short-lived: in 1903, five years after annexation, the United States Congress “demonetized” it, and most of the coins were destroyed.

As Bumpy likes to quote Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild: “Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes it’s laws.” While we work on the education and political and legal transition, the economic/monetary transition doesn’t need to wait for those. It can start with local currency, which can be done under occupation imposed law, and people can simply make their own choice to use it. Read the article to see the examples of other places, but it is quite legal to do.

The first question might be, is that legal? It is—with a few caveats. Creating and using a local currency—sometimes called complementary currency, in that it “complements,” but doesn’t replace, a national currency—will not unleash the dogs of the U.S. government, as long as it isn’t coin, isn’t referred to as “legal tender” and doesn’t look like U.S. currency.

Nothing says it can’t look like Hawaiian currency. If the U.S. doesn’t regard Hawaii as a country, then scrip that looks like Hawaiian currency would seem perfectly legal. (There’s mention in the article of Sam Slom’s attempt to reissue the dala, he’s not quite the right person to do it lol, but it just goes to show that it’s quite legal to do.)

This would serve three important purposes:

1. It would help stimulate the local economy, just like local currency anywhere;
2. It would stimulate curiosity and provide an opportunity to educate people about and win support for the Hawaiian kingdom; and
3. It would be evidence of the de facto Hawaiian kingdom government effectively providing a government service to it’s citizens/residents, which is an important step in eventually restoring recognition internationally.

There are enough people/business who believe in the existence of the kingdom who would gladly use the money if it was done right, and maybe that’s how you first introduce it, but I see it being very inclusive, so people would use it just because of the benefit it provides, and you could reach out to lots of local businesses and entrepreneurs with the focus mainly on it as a form of local currency. But then as they use it they would start to ask about and identify with the kingdom. Believe me, there are lots of people on this island who would love to use a Hawaiian kingdom scrip if the system was set up well so they could believe in it and know if they accept this currency they can go spend it somewhere else useful.

Exactly how to do it and who can/will do it, I don’t yet know. Ideally, I would like to see this started by some coalition of “sovereignty groups” (for lack of a better term) along with cultural groups, who could use this as a common goal and all bring their networks into it. (It’s much better imo that it be started among the Hawaiian community and then through all their connections bring other locals into it, rather that starting among the haoles who might normally be the ones who might try this stuff but then may have a hard time getting Hawaiians/locals involved.)

And obviously, this is very complementary with a Hawaiian bank. The article mentions a bank that circulates one local currency, and a Hawaiian bank would take it to another level, but the currency can be started immediately, with no real legal/regulatory roadblocks, and maybe could help lead to a bank.

So… I think this is an idea worth putting out there for the new year…