Fixed Value
Setting a fixed value for the Stelo meant that, as of a certain date, its purchasing power would thereafter remain the same and would not be subject to inflation. On the chosen date, 1 January 1977, the purchasing power of one Stelo was defined as equal to a half guilder; i.e., one guilder was set equal to two Steloj.
Dr. Josef Hartl of Vienna had devised a detailed plan for fixing the value of the Stelo. Around 1977 Dr. Hartl had circulated a pamphlet on the Stelo that appears to have influenced Lawrence Mee. Hartl's article suggested the circulation of a currency with a constant value as an answer to inflationary devaluation. His basic idea was that regardless of its level of development each country could calculate in its national currency an average family's monthly expenditure. One could then arbitrarily assign the value of 1,000 monetary units to this average monthly expenditure. Thus by definition, the loss to a family in any country of, say, 10 units would be absolutely equal to 10 "international monetary units."
By careful calculation, therefore, the conversion rate between the international monetary unit and the national currency could be adjusted as necessary according to the inflation rate in any particular country. By basing transactions among different countries on the international monetary unit, the national currencies would be beyond the attacks of speculators; indeed, speculation in currency values would become useless.
As often occurs, several unconnected events happened to coincide:
- In 1976 the Internacia Scienca Asocio Esperantista (ISAE: International Esperanto Sciences Association) urged the Universal League to revalue the Stelo;
- New members took a leading role in the League;
- In the League a forgotten supply of Stelo coins was rediscovered;
- At the same time the publication of a new magazine began;
- A Dutch monetary reformer published an article concerning the unsuitability of currency systems in the industralized lands; and
- Dr. Hartl launched his pamphlet.
Read more about this topic: Stelo, Lawrence Mee's Role
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