One of goals for this project is to contribute some historical perspective to the current discussions of the cashless society, and to that end, I’m happy to announce that we have added a rather intriguing new paper to our Working Papers section: Pre-1900 utopian visions of the ‘cashless society’ by Matthew Hollow.
Although one might initially wonder what utopian literature has to do with current discussions of the cashless society, Hollow reminds us that “Historically, one of the most prominent mediums through which new ideas about monetary systems have been presented and debated is the utopian treatise.” As they describe their perfect society, utopian writers naturally have to re-imagine the economic life of that society, and decide what role, if any, money should play in it. Many utopian thinkers sought to do away with private property, trade, and money altogether, resulting in a completely moneyless society. Others, however, recognized that doing so would require a wholesale reorganization of society that was perhaps not entirely realistic, and thus offered suggestions for alterative money and payment systems that did away with precious metals, coins, and paper bank notes.
Current discussions about the cashless society often seem to imply that it is a relatively new idea, one that was introduced by the adoption of credit cards and now mobile payment systems, but Hollow shows that the idea of cashless society is actually quite an old one. The technologies may have changed significantly over the centuries, but the social implications are still largely the same, and utopian thinkers offer some valuable insights that could inform our contemporary discussions. Utopian literature also reminds us that simply introducing a new payment method may not be enough to effect a truly cashless society; it may also require larger social changes, which naturally take generations to accomplish.
The Cashless Society 