ich has been published."--_Banker's Magazine (New
York)._

"It is the most complete book on the subject."--_Mr. G. N.
Pierson, late Dutch Prime Minister and Minister of Finance._

"There was manifest need of just such a book.... A mine of
valuable information."--_Review of Reviews._

"This is an excellent book in every way, and thoroughly deserves
the careful attention of all who are concerned for the welfare of the
people."--_Economic Review._

LONDON: P. S. KING & SON
ORCHARD HOUSE, WESTMINSTER

STUDIES IN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE

Edited by the Hon. W. PEMBER REEVES,
Director of the London School of Economics

No. 21 in the Series of Monographs by Writers connected
with the London School of Economics and Political Science

AN EXAMPLE OF COMMUNAL CURRENCY

AN EXAMPLE OF COMMUNAL CURRENCY:

THE FACTS ABOUT THE GUERNSEY MARKET HOUSE

COMPILED FROM ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS
BY
J. THEODORE HARRIS, B.A.

WITH A PREFACE BY
SIDNEY WEBB, LL.B.

LONDON
P. S. KING & SON
ORCHARD HOUSE, WESTMINSTER
1911

CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE vii

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAP.

I. CONSTITUTION OF GUERNSEY 4

II. THE SECURITY OF THE NOTES 6

III. MUNICIPAL ENTERPRISE--THE ISSUE OF THE NOTES 9

IV. THE UTILITY OF THE NOTES 20

V. FIRST RUMBLINGS OF OPPOSITION 25

VI. THE REPLY OF THE STATES 30

VII. THE CRISIS 45

VIII. THE END 55

CONCLUSION 59

APPENDIX 61

PREFACE

Those who during the past thirty or forty years have frequented working
men's clubs or other centres of discussion in which, here and there, an
Owenite survivor or a Chartist veteran was to be found, will often have
heard of the Guernsey Market House. Here, it would be explained, was a
building provided by the Guernsey community for its own uses, without
borrowing, without any toll of interest, and, indeed, without cost. To
many a humble disputant the Guernsey Market House seemed, in some
mysterious way, to have been exempt