Equitable Labour Exchange

In September 1832 socialist reformer Robert Owen, famed for the model community at the New Lanark mills, opened the Equitable Labour Exchange on Grays Inn Road. The Exchange used a new currency which was based on labour. Workers could exchange goods for notes according to the time they had taken to make the goods. The notes were measured in hours. The notes could then be exchanged for goods of equal 'time value'. Problems soon arose with the system, partly because the assessors over-valued goods, and because tradesmen would bring in low quality items, trade them for notes, trade these for high-quality goods, and sell these goods at a profit. The Exchange closed in 1834.