Wendy Pond Collection on Argentinian Trade Currency and the Red Global de Trueque
Scope and Content
The collection includes three folders. The first folder "Credits and currency" includes several paper credits called trueques with values of 1/2, 1/4, 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 credits, one Argentinian Peso, and one members' start-up packet. The second folder "Newspaper Articles" includes six newspapers with articles, ads, and sign-up forms. The third folder "Pamphlets and Sign-up Packet" includes one sign-up packet for new members, and four fliers with information about the Red Global de Trueque. It also includes one CD with additional information on the barter economy in Argentina including legislation related to this. The contents of the collection span from 1999 to 2004. The Red Global de Trueque was established in Argentina in 1999 in response to Argentina's economic collapse of 1998 that sent the country into a Great Depression.
The paper credits which are used as a form of capital within the Red Global de Trueque have a list of rules on the back. The newspaper articles describe "nodes" or markets where members could spend their credits and sell products exclusively for credits.
The ads in the newspapers explain the rules, provide instructions for signing-up, and locations for local "nodes." The fliers include publicity such as the benefits of joining the network to the individual and the community. The sign-up packet included in this collection is still sealed.
Dates
- Creation: 1999-2003
Creator
- Pond, Wendy, 1977- (Person)
Access
The collection is open for research.
Biographical/Historical Note
Wendy Pond was a graduate student in the UF MALAS program from 2004 to 2006. Her thesis focused on a system of barter clubs, clubes de trueque, that sprang up in Argentina after the 1998 economic crisis. While self-titled as barter clubs, these groups in fact printed their own currency as a system of exchange. Wendy visited Argentina in 2005 to interview current and past participants in the clubs.
The Red Global de Trueque (Global Trade Network) started in Argentina in 1999 as a survival strategy for Argentina's Great Depression (1998 - 2002). The Great Depression caused widespread unemployment, riots, and a default on the country's foreign debt. The economy shrank by 28 percent from 1998 to 2002. The Red Global de Trueque has provided citizens an opportunity to engage with a different form of capital other than the official Argentinian peso. The hope was for people to engage in local trade and thus invigorate a local market that was accessible to all despite the financial burden caused by the financial crisis of 1998. This form of trade is still in existence today.
Extent
.01 Linear feet (3 Folders)
Language of Materials
Spanish; Castilian
Abstract
Newspaper articles, pamphlets, and currency from Argentina's Red Global de Trueque introduced as an alternate currency after 1998-2002 economic collapse.
Arrangement
Arranged by item type.
Physical Location
University of Florida Smathers Library Building
Alternate Form of Finding Aid
This guide is available in Spanish at https://www.uflib.ufl.edu/findingaids/Spanish/mss0411.pdf.
Acquisition Information
Wendy Pond donated the collection in 2017.
- Title
- A Guide to the Wendy Pond Collection on Argentinian Trade Currency and the Red Global de Trueque
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Finding aid created by David Rinehart
- Date
- January 2018
- Description rules
- Finding Aid Prepared Using Dacs
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is written in English.
Repository Details
Part of the Special and Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida Repository
George A. Smathers Libraries
PO Box 117005
Gainesville Florida 32611-7005 United States of America
352-273-2755
special@uflib.ufl.edu