WO2004027660A2

WO2004027660A2 - Trading or barter system using a combination of real and trade currency

Info

Publication number: WO2004027660A2
Application number: PCT/AU2003/001230
Authority: WO
Inventors: Michael Robert Box
Original assignee: Michael Robert Box
Priority date: 2002-09-19
Filing date: 2003-09-19
Publication date: 2004-04-01
Also published as: AU2002951491A0

Description

Trading or barter system using a combination of real and trade currency

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a trading system for the acquisition of goods and services using a combination of trade and real currency adapted to be used by businesses and the general public.

Thus the present system relates to a barter or trade type system that accommodates the provision of goods and services by trade or barter members between themselves (B2B) and also to the general public (B2C), that is, those people that are not in the business of providing goods and services themselves and that are typically excluded from trading exchanges.

Trade or barter systems are well known and barter, or what is commonly known as "one on one" barter and sometimes called a "contra deal" by participating businesses, was once the customary way of doing business. Quite simply, two traders exchanged goods and/or services at an agreed value rate. Over time, currencies were developed as a medium having an inherent face value that were accepted as payment for goods and/or services since traders knew that the currency they received could then be used by them to purchase goods and/or services that they required anywhere. The use of currencies enabled trade not only between business but also the general public at large that typically were only able to provide labour.

In recent years, the exchange of goods and/or services using barter or trade currency has once again become popular for a number of reasons. Various traders gather in separate collectives trading in the currency of their collective. Joining such a collective provides the members with access to businesses that may be potential new customers, which they would not necessarily be able to access otherwise.

Trading or barter managers, who demand a percentage of the trade currency traded paid in the real currency, typically run the collective.

However, such a scheme is limited to members that are able to provide goods and/or services that they can offer in the barter exchange. Since the majority of the population are typically Pay-As-You-Earn workers that are employed by others, the trading or barter systems as currently known exclude a vast pool of people. It is, however, the general public that these days posses a vast buying power and it is the inability of B2B trading systems to include the general public that is a significant drawback of any such trading system.

Further, the provision of goods and/or services includes capital outlay by the traders. Some goods/services have a small component of capital outlay whist others a significant part. As an example, one may consider a hairdressing service where there is much less capital outlay in providing hairdressing services that as there is in selling, for example, electrical goods, where the trader has to carry significant and expensive stock. Those traders that then deal mainly in goods are placed at a disadvantage when exchanging goods with other traders that have outlaid little real currency in the acquisition of their trade currency. For that reason, it is not uncommon to find trade collectives where there is a predominance of members that provide mainly services with little capital outlay required or if available these high cost products are available in limited amounts and in an on/off periodic and at often highly inflated trade prices.

It is an object of the present invention to propose a system of trade exchange, which overcomes at least some of the abovementioned problems, or provides the public with a useful alternative.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system of trade exchange wherein trade members can select to trade a percentage of trade and real currency, if required, to enable participation in the trading system to be sustainable and profitable.

It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a system of exchange accessible to both businesses and the public, i.e. B2B and B2C trade.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore in one form of the invention there is proposed a method for the exchange of goods and/or services in a trading exchange using a combination of trade and real dollars and having a plurality of trading members said method including: allocating a trading category to each member said trading category relating to a percentage of trade and real dollars that each member trades at, whereby a trading member obtaining goods and/or services from another trading member pays for those goods and/or services using a combination of real and trade dollars according to the category of the trading member supplying the goods and/or services.

Preferably, the categories of each of said members is chosen from but not limited to the following percentages of trade dollars to real dollars: 100/0, 70/30, 50/50, 30/70.

In a preferred embodiment, the exchange between two trading members occurs at a category that is the lesser category of the two members, or one where the percentage of trade dollars exchanged is lowest. For example a trader that normally operates at 100/0, that is they accept all trade dollars, in dealing with a trader that is a 30/70, that is only accepting 30% in trade dollars, can only obtain those goods by paying for 70% in real or cash dollars. Similarly the 30/70 trader wishing to receive goods and/or services from a 100/0 trader still has to provide that trader with 70% of the value of the trade in real dollars. This ensures that trading between traders is totally fair and reciprocal and that no one trader enjoys an unequal trading balance.

Preferably, the two trading members may agree to an exchange where the percentage of real dollars is higher than the category of either of the two trading members. This may occur if the seller for some reason requires more trade dollars, for example, for a specific project.

In a yet further form of the invention there is proposed a trading exchange using a combination or real and trade dollars, wherein members of the exchange that do not offer goods and/or services can purchase trade dollars from the exchange to use in obtaining goods and/or services from a trading exchange member.

In a preferred embodiment, the consumer or public is provided with a trading category defining the percentage of real and trade dollars that the pubic must use in obtaining these goods and/or services from the business membership.

Preferably said percentage is set at 30 percent trade dollars and 70 percent real dollars.

In preference, the general public can purchase trading dollars from the trading exchange or authorised outlets. In preference, the general public can purchase trading dollars using real dollars at a greater than 1 :1 ratio. Some of the ratios that may be provided are $100 trade dollars for $70 real dollars equating to a discount of some 30%.

Preferably, the number of trading dollars purchased using real dollars increases with the total value of the real dollars. For example, $250 trade dollars for $150 real dollars equating to a discount of some 40%.

Preferably, the ratio of trading dollars to real dollars purchased is 2:1 when $250 or more real dollars are used, that is, $500 trade dollars for $250 real dollars equating to a discount of some 50%.

In preference, the general public can exchange any unused trading dollars at a ratio of 2:1 , that is, two trade dollars required to receive a single real dollar.

In still a further form of the invention there is proposed a trading exchange using a combination or real and trade dollars, wherein members of the exchange and the general public can purchase trade dollars from the exchange or an authorised agent to use in trade.

In preference the general public purchases goods or services from the member of the exchange at a discounted rate of 12.5%.

In preference the member of the trade exchange is provided with an account.

In preference the trading exchange reimburses the account of the member with 15% of the 12.5% discount given to the member of the general public.

In a further form of the invention there is proposed a method for the exchange of goods and/or services in a trading exchange using a combination of trade and real currency and between a trading member and a non-member, said method including: enabling non-member to purchase trade currency whereby said non-member then uses those trade currency to purchase goods and/or services from said trading member using a combination of real and trade currency.

This method ensures that a trading exchange is not compromised and always has real currency reserves to meet any obligation required by statutory provisions.

In preference said trading member offers a discount to non-members purchasing goods and/or service at least in part with purchased trade currency. In preference said trading exchange rebates said trading member a percentage of trade currency received by the trading member in exchange for their goods and/or services. Typically this rebate may be some 15%.

In preference said non-member receives trading currency in the form of printed notes having the value of the trade currency marked thereon.

Preferably the non-member can redeem the printed notes of trade currency for real currency at an outlet nominated by said trading exchange.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate several implementations of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the advantages and principles of the invention. In the drawings,

Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating the operation of typical business-to-business barter or trading system;

Figure 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a first embodiment of the present invention where individual business are categorised according to the minimum percentage of trade currency that they will trade under;

Figure 3 is a schematic block diagram illustrating the present invention and the exchange that occurs when the category of the exchange is governed by the higher cash dollar of the categories; and

Figure 4 is a schematic block diagram illustrating the present invention when accommodating customers that do not offer goods and/or services but are rather the general public.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following detailed description of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings. Although the description includes exemplary embodiments, other embodiments are possible, and changes may be made to the embodiments described without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings and the following description to refer to the same and like parts.

In the following description reference is made to the trade currency as being the trade dollars. It is to be understood that this is not meant by way of exclusion and other currencies may equally well be used. The following description therefore relates to any authorised medium exchange deemed acceptable by the trade exchange operator.

A typical barter or trading system as illustrated in Figure 1 includes a plurality of traders, in this example there being three traders 10, 12, and 14 for illustrative purposes, each able to provide goods and/or services to the other. The traders are members of a trading exchange 16 that manages the trading process and acts as a "bank", a third party clearing house and operator of their trading system to all members. The trading exchange 16 thus manages accounts 18, 20, and 22 for the respective traders 10, 12, and 14. The account of each trader acts as a typical financial account whereby a trader has trade dollars or is in an overdraft, most trading exchanges offering an overdraft facility. Trade between B2B members occurs by the use of trade dollar cheques.

If trader 10 wishes to receive goods from trader 12 they simply purchase them using a cheque 24 made out in barter dollars and receive goods or services 26. Trader 12 then authorises and banks the cheque into their account 20.

Typically the trading exchange 16 charges a commission from both the supplier and receiver of goods and/or services to be paid in real dollars to the exchange. The commission charged by a trading exchange is typically around the 5- 7.5% both ways. This means that the trading exchange receives a commission of some 15% in real dollars on each and every exchange of goods and/or services between member traders. In addition, the trading exchange may very well charge incidental fees, such as the fees on individual cheques as well as advertising costs and so on.

The trading exchange 16 therefore issues two invoices, one invoice 28 to trader 10 that received the goods 26 and the other invoice 30 to the trader that supplied the goods. The amount of the invoices is a percentage of the value of the transaction and is to be paid in real dollars and not trade dollars, that is, the legally accepted tender of the country where they are trading, such as US dollars in the United States and AU dollars in Australia. At the same time the account 18 of trader 10 is debited trade dollars reflecting the value of the cheque 24.

Trader 12 then purchases goods 30 from trader 14 paying by a trade dollar cheque 32. The details of the transaction are supplied to trading exchange 16 that then debits account 20 of trader 12 and credits account 22 of trader 14. The exchange 16 then issues both trader 12 and 14 with invoices 34 and 36 respectively as was the case earlier.

To complete the example of a simple trade exchange trader 14 then purchases goods 38 from trader 10 be paying using a cheque 40, the accounts 22 and 18 of traders 14 and 10 being updated accordingly by the exchange 16, who then issues the traders 14 and 10 with invoices 42 and 44 respectively to be paid in real dollars.

Those skilled in the art will immediately appreciate that in such a trading exchange, all of the traders are locked into a situation whereby they provide the trading exchange with real currency whilst locked into trading with members that are in the collective. Further they are forced into trading purely with trade dollars. Those traders that then have to acquire goods from outside of the collective and then need to pay for them using real currency are at a significant disadvantage and are therefore reluctant to join any such collective.

As a solution to this problem, it is not uncommon for traders to make individual deals on each trade requesting that in addition to trade dollars they also receive real dollars. Such a trade is however sporadic and depends on two traders able to reach a compromise. This scheme is not favoured by trading exchanges since they are commission driven and thus do not receive any return on real dollars exchanged. It also leads to disharmony, overpricing, and rorting by the membership, overpricing in fact suiting the trading exchange since it will receive a higher commission.

Referring now to Figure 2 there is illustrated a first embodiment of the present invention. Trading members 46 and 48 are members of an exchange 50. Each member 46 and 48 has a trading category 52 and 54 respectively. The category is simply a ratio X/Y wherein X equals the percentage of trade dollars, Y being the remaining percentage in real dollars, with quite obviously X+Y=100%. To reduce the complexity to a manageable lever, a trading exchange may limit the number of categories that may be provided, such as 100/0 (0% trade dollars to 100% real dollars), 70/30 (70% trade dollars to 30% real dollars), 50/50 (50% trade dollars to 50% real dollars), 30/70 (30% trade dollars to 70% real dollars). It is however to be understood that the ratios are not fixed and the percentages may be chosen at the discretion of the exchange and its members. However, the preferred breakdowns are as above when decided on the cost/profit ratio basis as per the relevant industry, i.e. the level of hard product (retail goods) versus soft products (services or labour).

Each transaction between traders is governed by the category of the trader that is providing the goods and/or services. Say for example that the category of trader 46 is 70/30 whilst trader 48 is 50/50. When trader 46 wishes to purchase goods 56 from trader 52, the transaction is governed by the category 54 of trader 48, that is, 50/50. This means that trader 46 can only deal with trader 48 by paying for the goods 56 using 50% of the value in real dollars and 50% in trade dollars even though trader 46 themselves are in the category 70/30 whereby they will accept 70% in trade dollars and 30% in real dollars. To assist in the exchange 50 monitoring the exchange, one cheque 58 may be used for the different transactions, the cheque having an indicia means thereon that indicates at what category were the goods purchased.

The skilled addressee will now appreciate that the present invention provides for a system wherein traders that need to provide a significant capital outlay in the provision go their goods and/or services are fairly treated and are able to recoup some of the capital outlay by being provided with real currency in addition to trade dollars.

In a further embodiment, as illustrated in Figure 3, the present invention provides for a system wherein the lowest trade dollar category of the two traders involved in an exchange determines the category of the transaction. For example, if trader 60 has a category 62 having a ratio of 50/50 and trader 62 has a category 64 having a ratio 30/70, the category of the exchange or cheque 66 is determined by the higher of the two ratios in real dollars or lower of the two ratios in trade dollars, that is the higher value of X. That is, the transaction category in this case will be 30/70 that being the lower trade category and higher cash category. This means that if trader 60 wishes to purchase goods 68 they must pay trader 62 70% in real dollars and 30% in trade dollars.

In a yet further embodiment of the present invention, it is intended that the lowest category determine the minimum trade to real dollar ratio, so that if both traders agree, the trade may occur at a higher ratio. For example, if both traders had a category of 30/70, but one trader wishes to trade at a level of 50/50, the exchange can still occur, since the trader providing the goods has only set a minimum category of trade to real dollars that they will accept, and not a maximum.

In introducing a category system for the traders in the first instance, the trading exchanges commission will also vary. For that reason, and for the reason that the trade should not be advantageous to those whose category is higher, it is intended that the exchange only receive a flat fee per any one transaction. Typically, that fee is charged when the trader purchases a chequebook, rather than on any other subsequent trade. Of course, each trading exchange may have a limit on that and may require a small percentage commission when the value of the exchange is above a pre-set threshold. This create and facilitates totally fair and reciprocal trading and helps to cut out rorting and over-pricing of goods and maintain and promote harmony between the membership.

The system described so far provides significant advantages over trading systems currently known. By introducing a trading category, those businesses that require a large capital outlay can be fairly treated in a trading exchange by other traders only able to trade with them at a pre-set minimum category. Such a trading system will therefore be much more attractive to traders that provide these goods that have a high unit cost and a low service cost. It will also allow them to participate at a consistent and ongoing proper level.

It is also to be understood that the above description has been by way of example only. For example, the ratios may be written in the alternate format, that is where X is the real dollar component and Y is the trade dollar component.

Whilst the above system greatly solves the inequity in known current trading exchange formats, it still limits the exchange participation by business-to-business B2B operators. As illustrated in Figure 4, in a further embodiment of the present invention there is proposed a system enables the participation in the exchange by members that do not necessarily have goods and/or service to offer. These members, or the "general public", do not need to have an account with the trading exchange. Instead of a trading cheque they are therefore provided with trade dollars in a printed format, or trade cash. Of course, with the advent of modern technology the trade cash may equally well be found on electronic currency cards or the like and it is not intended to limit the present invention to trade currency that is of a printed type.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an exchange 70 has participating traders such as traders 72 and 74. As discussed earlier each of the traders has a trading category 76 and 78 respectively that determines the ratio of trade to real dollars that they can trade with other traders. Each trader 72 and 74 also has an account 80 and 82 respectively where their net trade dollars are reflected.

To enable the general public 84 to participate in the exchange they can purchase trade cash dollars from specifically designated outlets 86. They can then use those trade cash dollars to purchase goods 88 say from trader 72 and services 90 from trader 74. As they have purchased the trade cash dollars using real dollars, they need not be allocated any specific category and may purchase goods using a combination of trade cash or real dollars. To entice the general public to trade with a particular trader, traders then may then wish to offer discounts on purchases made with trade cash dollars. For example, if an item costs 100 dollars to purchase, a trader may advertise that they are prepared to accept 70 real dollars and only 20 trade dollars thereby effectively providing a discount.

There is however a drawback in this system in that it may make traders compete against each other and would also be difficult to monitor and maintain.

Therefore in a preferred embodiment of the invention, it is intended that the general public become members of the trading exchange that can trade at a pre-set category, having been given a membership card with that category enabling them to trade at that ratio of trade to real dollars. Typically the category 92 given to the general public is 30/70, that is, they can only purchase goods and/or service using 30% in trade dollars and 70% in real currency. This in itself however does not provide for any incentive for the general public to participate in the exchange since they do not gain any benefit in trading with any trading member. The present invention therefor provides for the general public to be able to purchase trade cash dollars at a premium discount rate value, the amount of discount depending on the total value of the trade dollars purchased. For example, the typical discount rates that may be given by a trading exchange are:

(a) $100 trade for $70 real dollars that relates to a 30% discount, 9% flat, or

42.8% increase in buying power;

(b) $250 trade for $150 real dollars that relates to a 40% discount, 12% flat, or 66.6% increase in buying power; and

(c) $500 trade for $250 real that relates to 50% discount, 15% flat or 100% increase in buying power.

The skilled addressee will now appreciate that the savings above represents significant gain and benefit for the general public members to use the system. This embodiment therefore ensures that the traders still receive a significant real dollar proportion when the general public is purchasing goods from them using a combination of trade cash dollars 94 and real dollars 96, so that even if the general public purchase dollars at a 2:1 ratio, given that they can only use trade dollars for 30% of the value of the goods, this equates to a discount of 15% on the total price, scenario (c) above.

Those skilled in the art will now appreciate that the discount given by the trading exchange and the collective is an incentive for general members of the general public to effectively participate in the scheme thus bringing benefits to all participants at all levels. This creates a huge potential for continued focussed business for the trading exchange membership. This is available to the general public on a buying club type basis, i.e. low membership fee type and ID card.

In a further preferred embodiment of the present invention, there will usually be a case where a member of the general public may have unused trade dollars that they may wish to convert back in to real currency. Accordingly, any member of the general public will be able to access an exchange 98 to exchange trade cash dollars for real dollars at a flat rate of 2 trade cash dollars for every real dollar. It is preferred that this mechanism is available to the public membership and not the B2B membership. The exchange will buy back the currency less commission at the maximum discount rate say 50/50. Thus any unused trade dollars 94 can be exchanged through the exchange or other authorised outlets for real dollars 96. The general public therefore does not feel like it has been taken advantage off in that they may hold a small amount of trade dollars that are effectively unusable if they should cease to participate.

In some cases there may be statutory provisions for a trading exchange to be able to back up the trading dollars using real dollars or the local currency. If the trading exchange has sufficient reserves and funding this is not a problem. In some instances however, where the trading exchange may need to be self- funding, offering the public trading dollars at a discount price may prove to be a problem when those trading dollars are redeposited with the exchange since the ratio of real dollars to trade dollars has then changed.

However, it is still desirous to be able to provide the pubic with an incentive to join the trading exchange. Accordingly the exchange still offers the public the chance to buy trading dollars but not at a discounted price. These trading dollars then enable the public to purchase goods/services from traders in the trading exchange who by way of inducement offer discounts to those members of the public only that use in part trade dollars.

Thus in a further aspect of the present invention and as illustrated in Figure 5 there is shown outlet 100 that acts as the agent for the trading exchange 70. This authorised outlet 100 may well be a Post Office, Newsagent or designated business that is authorised to distribute and conduct business on behalf of the trading exchange 70. This structure provides the traders 102 and the general public 84 with a pre-existing network of outlets 100 through whom they are able to conduct business using the trading exchange 70. The general public can purchase trade dollars 104 from the outlet 100 in denominations such as, but not limited to: 1 , 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, or 100.

Rather then receiving a discount when buying trade dollars from an outlet 100, when a member of the general public 84 purchases goods or services 106 from a trader 102 who is a member of the trading exchange 70 at a rate of 30% trade dollars and 70% real dollars they receive a discount of 12.5%. Of course the reader would understand that the discount rate is not restricted to 12.5% and may indeed vary. The trader 102 is then able to deposit the trade dollars through the authorised outlet into his personal account 108 that is managed by the trading exchange 70. The account 108 will be credited with the amount deposited at the outlet 100. The trading exchange may offer the trader a rebate 110 of a set percentage, for example 15%, of the 12.5% discount rate. This means that effectively the discount cost to the trader 102 is lowered to around 8.5% of the actual cash purchase price of the goods or services. Of course the exchange may offer a greater or lesser rebate to various traders enabling the exchange the option of rewarding those traders that qualify by satisfying predetermined criteria such as reaching a specific turnover and so on.

As the reader would now appreciate the present embodiment enables both the trader 102 and the general public 84 to conduct business with the trading exchange 70 through the same authorised outlet 100. Furthermore members of the trading exchange are able to obtain trade dollars either by converting the credit in their account 108 or by way of a Personal Loan Credit Line (PLCL).

The trading exchange system according to the present invention may include other well-known methods including trading point schemes, maximum limits of any one trade, the requirement to obtain authorisation from the exchange before a cheque is given above a certain amount. The system may also include a small percentage commission paid to outlets that provide trading dollars to the general public. It is therefore not the intention of the present application to exclude these further variants. They are assumed techniques that the person skilled in the art will be aware off and could apply to the present invention.

Since the trading exchange is in no way longer commission driven or reliant, the present system will be more attractive to the trader and the general public alike. The trading exchange simply collects a pre-set fee per any one transaction.

Membership fees may also be applied on an annual basis. These membership fees may however be returned to the individual members and the general public as trading dollars.

The present invention overcomes the problems of trade between businesses that have a different capital outlay costs. Further, the present invention provides for a system that enables the general public to participate in B2B barter collective or trading exchange that they otherwise could not be a part of. In summary trade currency of the trading exchange will be made available to the public at various authorised outlets such as post offices, newsagents and other businesses nominated by the exchange. The public can then purchase the trade currency from these outlets and various denominations that is then spent at any business that is a member of the trading exchange. To entice the public to purchase form members of the trading exchange if they are purchasing using in part trade and real currency the trading member offers them a discount. Typically the rate of trade to real currency is 30/70. The trading member subsequently deposits the trade currency into their account with the trading exchange. The trading exchange can then credit their account with additional trading dollars thus offering a further discount effectively lowering the total discount that the trader provided to the member of the public. The public can further become members of the exchange by being given a non-trading membership card that enables them to open a trade currency account with the exchange and that identifies them with members of the trading exchange.

Any unused trade currency can then be redeemed by the public at face value of the currency plus a small administrative charge of say 5%.

Further advantages and improvements may very well be made to the present invention without deviating from its scope. Although the invention has been shown and described in what is conceived to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is recognized that departures may be made therefrom within the scope and spirit of the invention, which is not to be limited to the details disclosed herein but is to be accorded the full scope of the claims so as to embrace any and all equivalent devices and apparatus.

In any claims that follow and in the summary of the invention, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word "comprising" is used in the sense of "including", i.e. the features specified may be associated with further features in various embodiments of the invention.

Dated this Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Michael Robert Box

By their Patent Attorneys LESICAR PERRIN

Claims

1. A method for the exchange of goods and/or services in a trading exchange using a combination of trade and real dollars and having a plurality of trading members, said method including: allocating a trading category to each member said trading category relating to a percentage of trade and real dollars that each member trades at; whereby a trading member obtaining goods and/or services from another trading member pays for those goods and/or services using a combination of real and trade dollars according to the category of the trading member supplying the goods and/or services.

2. A method as in Claim 1 wherein the said categories of each of said members is chosen from but not limited to the following percentages of trade dollars to real dollars: 100/0, 70/30, 50/50, 30/70.

3. A method as in Claim 1 and 2 wherein the exchange between two trading members occurs at a category that is the lesser category of the two members, or one where the percentage of trade dollars exchanged is lowest.

4. A method as in any of the preceding Claims wherein the two trading members may agree to an exchange where the percentage of real dollars is higher than the category of either of the two trading members.

5. A method for the exchange of goods and/or services in a trading exchange using a combination or real and trade dollars, wherein members of the exchange that do not offer goods and/or services can purchase trade dollars from the exchange to use in obtaining goods and/or services from a trading exchange member.

6. A method as in Claim 5 wherein the trading exchange authorises an agent to undertake business on their behalf.

7. A method as in any of the preceding Claims wherein the consumer or general public is provided with a trading category defining the percentage of real and trade dollars that the pubic must use in obtaining these goods and/or services from the trading members.

8. A method as in Claim 7 wherein the said percentage is set at 30 percent trade dollars and 70 percent real dollars.

9. A method as in Claim 7 wherein the general public can purchase trading dollars from the trading exchange or an authorised outlet.

10. A method as in Claim 9 wherein the general public can purchase trading dollars using real dollars at a greater than 1 :1 ratio.

11. A method as in Claim 9 wherein the number of trading dollars purchased using real dollars increases with the total value of the real dollars.

12. A method as in Claim 9 wherein the ratio of trading dollars to real dollars purchased is 2:1 when $250 or more real dollars are used.

13. A method as in Claim 9 wherein the general public can exchange any unused trading dollars at a ratio of 2:1 , that is two trade dollars required to receive a single real dollar.

14. A method as in any of the preceding Claims wherein the consumer or general public obtains goods and/or services from the trading member at a discounted rate.

15. A method as in Claim 14 wherein the trading member is reimbursed a percentage of the discounted rate from the trading exchange.

16. A method for the exchange of goods and/or services in a trading exchange using a combination of trade and real currency and between a trading member and a non-member, said method including: enabling non-member to purchase trade currency whereby said non-member then uses those trade currency to purchase goods and/or services from said trading member using a combination of real and trade currency.

17. A method as in claim 16 wherein said trading member offers a discount to non-members purchasing goods and/or service at least in part with purchased trade currency.

18. A method as in claim 16 or 17 wherein said trading exchange rebates said trading member a percentage of trade currency received by the trading member in exchange for their goods and/or services.

19. A method as in claim 16 wherein said non-member receives trading currency in the form of printed notes having the value of the trade currency marked thereon.

20. A method as in claim 19 wherein said non-member can redeem the printed notes of trade currency for real currency at an outlet nominated by said trading exchange.

21. A method substantially as herein before described with reference to Figure 2.

22. A method substantially as herein before described with reference to Figure 3.

23. A method substantially as herein before described with reference to Figure 4.

24. A method substantially as herein before described with reference to Figure 5.