Silvio Gesell (1862-1930)

The first to propose the Demurrage System.

Biography

Silvio Gesell was born on Mar 17, 1862 in Sankt Vith (currently part of the Province of Liège, Belgium, but then part of Germany) as seventh of 9 children of protestant Prussian father (fiscal officer) and catholic Wallon mother (former teacher). Very eager to be independent since his childhood, he worked for a post office at Berlin and learned to do businesses at his brother's one before staying for two years in Málaga, Spain, as a correspondent. After spending more time in Braunschweig and Hamburg he went to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to open a branch office of his brother's business.

In that era Argentina was eager to attract European immigrants for the exploitation of a huge agricultural land, and suffered from economic turmoils such as the deflation due to the lack of gold after the introduction of gold standard and the inflation triggered by over issuing bills to fill up this lack. Gesell succeeded in avoiding his asset losses by analyzing precisely the fluctuation of prices, and got interested in studying the economics. He wrote articles like "The money reform as a bridge toward a social state" (Die Reformation im Münzwesen als Brücke zum sozialen Staat) and "The monetary administration" (Die Verstaatlichung des Geldes) in the beginning of 1890s, getting more and more interested by a French social philosopher Pierre Joseph Proudhon.

Gesell left his business to his brother in 1900 to dedicate himself on the economic researches, purchasing a farm in Jura, the Switzerland and cultivating there. He read writings of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, Pierre Joseph Proudhon, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzche, Henry George and Michael Flürscheim, developing the idea to nationalize the old land of a country gradually to clear all the side-effect of private ownership as the whole land on the Earth is humankind's commons.

Gesell went back to Buenos Aires in 1907 as his brother died, restructuring his business and making money as his fund had been almost empty after publishing some works. Gesell left again his business to his son in 1911 and left to Oranienburg Eden, near Berlin, where a land reform movement initiated by Franz Oppenheimer was going on. He started to publish a newspaper, titled "Physiocrat" after François Quesnay's term, together with Georg Blumenthal in 1912, in which he proposed to allocate the rent of nationalized farms for mothers who are now engaging on rearing children. This newspaper was banned in 1916 by the Prussian authority, Gesell went back to Switzerland to publish the 1st edition of « The Natural Economic Order by Freeland and Freemoney » in Bern in which the demurrage system was suggested. Two conferences, « Gold and Peace? » in Bern in April 28, 1916 and « Freeland, the fundamental condition for peace » in Zurich on July 5, 1917 were added to further editions of "NEO".

In 1919 Gesell became a minister of finance affairs for Gustav Landauer's cabinet after he was asked to join the committee of Bavarian Social Democratic Government. This regime, however, lasted only for a week and Gesell was arrested for trahison.

Gesell, fortunately judged to be innocent but rejected by Swiss authorities, settled near Potsdam to think about the central bank, democracy and political and economic system. He suggested the dismantling of the governments and to leave non-profits in charge of the tasks that the government has done so far at "The Dismantlement of the Government" (Der Abbau des Staates). He visited again Argentina from 1924 to 1925, settled back in Oranienburg-Eden and ended his life on March 11, 1930.

---

Discussion

• Demurrage System (Free money as Gesell called it): Gesell's monetary reform to make money perishable
• Aging Money

---

Links

• Bio from the fantastic German site systemfehler.de
• The Natural Economic Order (click here to download it) from Silvio Gesell remains the landmark and visionary book on aging money and social money?.

Links in other languages

• Original version in German
• Spanish versiontext

  r1c1

  r1c2

  r2c1|r2c2||
• Japanese version(part 3 to 5)
• Villa Gesell, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is a resort which was created by Ernesto Gesell, Silvio's son.