Edwin Clarence Riegel (June 18, 1879 – 1953), generally known as E.C. Riegel, was an American

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

consumer advocate Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...

and

independent scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher ...

who campaigned against restrictions on

free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any o ...

s that harmed

consumer A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. T ...

s and promoted an alternative monetary theory and an early private enterprise currency alternative. Best selling

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

author

Harry Browne Harry Edson Browne (June 17, 1933 – March 1, 2006) was an American writer, politician, and investment advisor. He was the Libertarian Party's Presidential nominee in the U.S. elections of 1996 and 2000. He authored 12 books that in total have ...

, in the introduction to his 1974 book ''You Can Profit from a Monetary Crisis'' described Riegel's book ''The New Approach to Freedom'' as “The best explanation of the free market I've seen." Author David Boyle, devotes a chapter of his book ''The Money Changers: Currency Reform from Aristotle to e-cash'' to E.C. Riegel. Riegel is referenced on

alternative currency A complementary currency is a currency or medium of exchange that is not necessarily a national currency, but that is thought of as supplementing or complementing national currencies. Complementary currencies are usually not legal tender and thei ...

, commercial

barter In trade, barter (derived from ''baretor'') is a system of exchange in which participants in a transaction directly exchange goods or services for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. Economists distingu ...

and

investment strategy In finance, an investment strategy is a set of rules, behaviors or procedures, designed to guide an investor's selection of an investment portfolio. Individuals have different profit objectives, and their individual skills make different tactics an ...

sites.

Life and work

Riegel was born in Cannelton,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

and left home in 1894 at age 15 with a vision of

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...

for the common person. Self-educated, without academic degrees or distinctions, when speaking for groups he labeled himself a "non-academic student of money and credit." He supported himself working intermittently in sales at upscale department stores. He was married in 1905 to Blanche Ellis Beach; the marriage lasted seven years.E.C. Riegel
''The New Approach to Freedom''
Editorial preface by Spencer MacCallum, San Pedro, CA, The Heather Foundation, 1976 edition. Riegel associated and corresponded with libertarians,

individualist anarchists Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-relia ...

mutualists Mutualism describes the ecological Biological interaction, interaction between two or more species where each species has a net benefit. Mutualism is a common type of ecological interaction. Prominent examples include most vascular plants engag ...

and diverse

progressives Progressivism holds that it is possible to improve human societies through political action. As a political movement, progressivism seeks to advance the human condition through social reform based on purported advancements in science, techno ...

such as

Laurance Labadie Laurance Labadie (June 4, 1898 – August 12, 1975) was an American individualist anarchist and author. Career Labadie worked in the car industry in Detroit, Michigan. Labadie became an anarchist author, at first mainly republishing articles ...

anarcho-capitalist Anarcho-capitalism (or, colloquially, ancap) is an anti-statist, libertarian, and anti-political philosophy and economic theory that seeks to abolish centralized states in favor of stateless societies with systems of private property enforce ...

Spencer Heath Spencer Heath (January 3, 1876, Vienna, Virginia – October 6, 1963, Leesburg, Virginia) was an American engineer, attorney, inventor, manufacturer, horticulturist, poet, philosopher of science and social thinker.Spencer Heath MacCallum"The Qu ...

E.C. Riegel
''The New Approach to Freedom''
Editorial preface by Spencer MacCallum, San Pedro, CA, The Heather Foundation, 1979 edition. and libertarian and free thinkerbr>Charles T. Sprading
Riegel established the Consumer Guild of America in 1928 to campaign against restrictive consumer credit practices. After the

Wall Street Crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

and during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

he published articles and books exposing

big business Big business involves large-scale corporate-controlled financial or business activities. As a term, it describes activities that run from "huge transactions" to the more general "doing big things". In corporate jargon, the concept is commonly kn ...

trade associations A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. An industry trade association partici ...

, the

Better Business Bureau Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a private, 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization founded in 1912. BBB's self-described mission is to focus on advancing marketplace trust, consisting of 97 independently incorporated local BBB organizations in the Unit ...

and “

blue sky law A blue sky law is a state law in the United States that regulates the offering and sale of securities to protect the public from fraud. Though the specific provisions of these laws vary among states, they all require the registration of all se ...

” manipulation of investment markets which impoverished small

investors An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

. He began to question whether it was the government-controlled

monetary system A monetary system is a system by which a government provides money in a country's economy. Modern monetary systems usually consist of the national treasury, the mint, the central banks and commercial banks. Commodity money system A commodity m ...

which was the problem. He prepared questions about the nature of

money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are as ...

and sent them to a list of eighteen “world authorities” on the meaning of money he had solicited from famed economist

Irving Fisher Irving Fisher (February 27, 1867 – April 29, 1947) was an American economist, statistician, inventor, eugenicist and progressive social campaigner. He was one of the earliest American neoclassical economists, though his later work on debt def ...

. Six replied, but shared no consensus on the subject, as he illustrated in his 1936 book ''Irving Fisher's World Authorities on The Meaning of Money.'' Over the next few years in consultation with friends and students, Riegel constructed his own theory of money. In the 1940s he established The Valun Institute for Monetary Research to promote his monetary theories. In 1944 Harbinger press published his most successful book ''Private Enterprise Money.'' After Riegel's death, Spencer H. MacCallum, who had met Riegel through his grandfather Spencer Heath, obtained all Riegel's papers, which now reside with the Heather Foundation, of which MacCallum was director. In 1976 the Heather Foundation edited and published Riegel's book, ''The New Approach to Freedom'' (formerly published as a pamphlet) and in 1978 his ''Flight from Inflation: The Monetary Alternative'', augmenting both with material from his unpublished papers.

Riegel's monetary theories

Riegel's monetary theory differentiated between the "objective view of money" as an "entity having some kind of an independent existence," especially

fiat money Fiat money (from la, fiat, "let it be done") is a type of currency that is not backed by any commodity such as gold or silver. It is typically designated by the issuing government to be legal tender. Throughout history, fiat money was sometime ...

issued by government. He contrasted this with the "subjective" idea of money, that "money can spring only from trade—that trade creates money, and not vice versa." This is a similar concept to

credit money Credit theories of money, also called debt theories of money, are monetary economic theories concerning the relationship between credit and money. Proponents of these theories, such as Alfred Mitchell-Innes, sometimes emphasize that money and cr ...

. Spencer MacCallum writes that E.C. Riegel thought "that a simple and dependable means of exchange would do more to enhance the dignity and well being of the common man than any political reform." He notes that: "Riegel conceived of money as simply number accountancy among private traders. ... Riegel came down on the side of a rigorously free-market fiat system; for a mature exchange system as he conceived it would depend on no intrinsic value at all, nor would it require or tolerate any government participation. In that sense, the fully evolved exchange system would be a natural system operating entirely as a spontaneous, free-market process with no political mandates imposed." In the "Money Freedom Declaration” issued by Riegel and supporters of the ideas expressed in ''Private Enterprise Money'',Text of E.C. Riegel. Declaration published by “Private Enterprise Money Committees,” 1944, from E.C. Riegel archives of The Heather Foundation. Riegel described "The Valun Private Enterprise Money System":

By private initiative and without intervention of government or banks, private enterprisers (employers, employees and self-employers) in any state will organize a Valun Exchange to operate a money system of, for and by the people. Such Valun Exchange will unite with every other Valun Exchange in any other state or nation making a universal money system with a single money unit, called the valun (pronounced vallen).

The money will spring from the mutual credit of all of the members of the Valun Exchanges in this way: It will be agreed that each member will have a credit on the Valun Exchange based upon prospective income, against which he or she can draw checks in payment of purchases from other members - in other words, will have the over-draft privilege.

When currency bills or coins are desired the members may draw the desired cash. No notes are to be signed and no interest is to be paid. The Valun Exchange will be a nonprofit, non-stock organization. No capital will be invested and the membership fee will be nominal. The Exchange will pay its expenses out of a small charge for each check cleared. All members of Valun Exchanges will use valuns when trading with each other and will continue to use dollars when trading with non-members.

As the valun system demonstrates its superiority, more persons and corporations will join it and thus more and more trading will be done with valuns and less with dollars, pounds, francs and the scores of other political money units. By this evolutionary process a universal money system will be established under the control of the people. Banks will not participate and governments will be empowered only to receive valuns and pay them out but not to create them.

The valun private enterprise money system is designed to break the present money control against the people and (a) raise wages and, salaries to the highest possible level, (b) maintain constant employment, (c) maintain a steady price level and prevent inflation and deflation, (d) abolish bureaucracy and centralization of government, (e) defeat fascism and communism, (f) assure real freedom, prosperity and democracy, (g) preserve peace.

Riegel's “Money Freedom Declaration” and ''Private Enterprise Money'' were endorsed by several progressive thinkers of the time including

James Peter Warbasse James Peter Warbasse (November 22, 1866 – February 22, 1957) was an American surgeon and advocate for cooperatives. He founded the Cooperative League of the United States of America (which later became the National Cooperative Business Associati ...

, an early leader of the

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

movement in America;

, “The Cooperative Way: A Method of World Reconstruction,” Chicago: Cooperative League of USA, 1946, 113. libertarian autho
Charles Sprading
and Wing Anderson, author o
War's End
about the banking system and war. Endorser Lawrence Labadie wrote that the book "brings out a fact that has not been seen clearly before, namely, that totalitarianism and war would be practically impossible unless the state had control of the money system." Economist John Lossing Buck, husband of

Pearl Buck Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for ''The Good Earth'' a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck ...

, stated that it explains "the meaning and function of money better than any other treatise on the subject that has come to my attention." Spencer Heath opined that it "is the best expose to date of how a political and coercive money system is bound to destroy free enterprise-to corrupt free citizens into subjects and slaves."

Bibliography

* ''The Yellow Book of the Macy controversy and the credit question'', The Riegel Corporation of New York, 1927 * ''Barnum & Bunk: An Exposure of R.H. Macy & Company'', The Riegel Corporation of New York, 1928 * ''Main Street Follies'', The Riegel Corporation of New York, 1928 * ''The Three Laws of Vending'', New York, Consumer Guild of America, Inc., 1928 * ''The Credit Question'', New York, Consumer Publications Inc., 1929 * ''Roosevelt Revalued'', New York, Consumers Guild of America, Inc., 1934 * ''The Valun Monographs'', New York, Consumers Guild of America, Inc., 1935 * ''Irving Fisher's World Authorities on The Meaning of Money'', New York, Consumer's Guild of America, Inc., 1936 * ''Planned prosperity: An outline of the guild system'', New York, Consumers Guild of America, Inc.,1938 * ''The Fifth Column in America'', New York, Consumers Guild of America, Inc., 1941 * ''Dollar Doomsday'', New York: Inflation Counselors, 1941 *
Private Enterprise Money: A non-political money system
', New York: Harbinger House, 1944 *

', New York: Valun Institute for Monetary Research, 1949; expanded new edition published by the Heather Foundation, San Pedro, CA,1976 *

', Los Angeles, CA, The Heather Foundation, 1978

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Riegel, Edwin Clarence 1879 births 1953 deaths American economics writers American male non-fiction writers Libertarian economists Monetary economists Monetary reformers People from Cannelton, Indiana

Life and work

Riegel's monetary theories

Bibliography

See also

References