Spain’s Social Currency Hope — Can “La Grama” Keep Money Local?
On a quiet morning in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, just north of Barcelona, a small café’s neon sign reads, “Aquí aceptamos Grama”.
It is easy to pass by without noticing. But this modest notice carries the weight of a bold experiment: a city testing a social currency to pull its local economy back from the edges.
A Town Watching Its Own Money Slip Away
Not long ago, Santa Coloma was facing a paradox. Though the town ran municipal programs, much of the spending vanished almost immediately. As the 2007–2017 dossier puts it, “90 % of the money paid out by the local authority had left within three days.”
In other words, the wealth generated in local subsidies and grants drained outwards—shops closed, customers shopped elsewhere, and the municipality risked being “a dormitory town” in a booming greater Barcelona.
In response, in January 2017, Santa Coloma launched La Grama — a 100 % digital social currency tied to the euro, meant to be used within the town itself. The idea: anchor public spending, community aid, and commerce in a confined circuit so that value circulates locally. The slogan “I’m from Santa Coloma — I shop in Santa Coloma” became a rallying cry.
How it works: the city channels part of its subsidies from departments like Culture, Sport, and Commerce in Gramas. Citizens use an app or web platform to spend Gramas in participating local businesses.
A Grama equals one euro—but if you convert before 45 days, a 5 % penalty applies. The penalty is designed to discourage immediate conversion and keep currency circulating locally.
From Idea To Momentum: Growth In Numbers
At first, skeptics abounded. Could a virtual currency, unknown to many residents, survive? Would local shops accept it? But over time, the momentum has grown. In July 2024, La Vanguardia reported that between 2017 and 2023:
- 1,862,825 Gramas were introduced (via public subsidies, grants, social benefits)
- The “circuit” of commerce recirculated those funds on average 4.5 times
- Total wealth generated in Grama-expressed exchanges exceeded 8,142,407 Gramas
In 2023 alone, the municipality injected 477,391 Gramas—its biggest year yet—and saw 35,287 individual transactions across 1,563 active participants (businesses, nonprofits, individuals).
That said, not all activity is uniform. Some shops remain hesitant; others embrace the new flow. The architecture is still nascent, but the cumulative numbers suggest that La Grama is no mere pilot – it is becoming embedded.
Barcelona Eyes Its Own Variant — The REC Experiment
Santa Coloma’s experiment hasn’t gone unnoticed. Barcelona’s municipal council is following closely, taking cues and planning to introduce a local social currency in the Besòs neighborhoods.
Barcelona’s version, called REC (Recurso Económico Ciudadano), was piloted in 2018 — functioning in select neighborhoods to blend municipal inclusion subsidies with local spending incentives.
A 2021 academic study in Journal of Risk Financial Management examined the REC model: one-quarter of a social subsidy was delivered in REC, the rest in euros.
The findings measured six indicators: currency usability, business uptake, recirculation velocity, satisfaction, etc. The results were cautiously optimistic: REC proved feasible but needed careful calibration in adoption, trust, and scale.
Still, the ambition is compelling: a municipality not just distributing aid, but embedding it in the fabric of local trade, nudging public spending toward neighbors rather than strangers. Barcelona’s leaders see this as a lever of social policy — not just economics.
Real Voices, Real Risk, Real Hope
In a small corner café, Clara, owner for 15 years, pauses at the mention of Grama. Her eyes soften. “At first I was doubtful. Would people use it? Could I really convert Gramas back to euros?
But I noticed some customers come in just to spend their Gramas. And I discovered I use them to pay for local services I used to commit elsewhere.”
In municipal offices, Lluís Torrens, Director of Planning and Innovation for Barcelona, notes that social currency is not magic. “For this to succeed, we need merchants’ buy-in, technology adoption, trust. And the public needs to see that their currency is not trapped but valuable.”
Experts agree it’s not without pitfalls. Some critics worry that local currencies may be insular—limiting access to wider markets or compounding inequalities if only certain demographics adopt them. Others argue inflation or pricing distortions could creep in, especially if merchants inflate prices to dissipate risk.
Yet La Grama’s progress offers counterweight: it is not static or token; it adapts. It evolved into Pro-Grama Social in 2022, channeling social benefits and aid as Gramas, thus closing the loop: aid → circle of local commerce → social cohesion.
The Deeper Turn: Money, Identity, Solidarity
What makes La Grama more than financial mechanics is its cultural resonance. Money becomes a talisman of locality: a symbol that your municipality, your neighbors, your shops are interwoven. It invites people to see their spending as choice—not just consumption, but contribution.
In Santa Coloma, when subsidies are partially issued in Gramas, recipients are nudged to spend in local markets. But these markets are not just economic nodes—they are social spaces.
A woman collects vegetables at one, pays in Gramas, waves to someone across the hall, chats. Behind that small gesture is a reclaiming of place.
It’s also a test of trust. To use digital Gramas, residents must accept new platforms, transparency, and oversight. Unlike cash, everything is traceable.
As Barcelona plans its variant, citizens question: can a mega-city preserve the intimacy that makes such a currency meaningful? Can social currency scale? The risk is that in a metropolis, the circuit becomes bureaucratic, disconnected, or gamed.
What’s At Stake — For Santa Coloma And Beyond
If La Grama succeeds, it offers more than local commerce. It becomes a laboratory for rethinking redistribution, civic trust, and participatory municipal budgeting. It invites us to imagine an economy where the line between “public spending” and “community breathing” blurs.
For Barcelona, the stakes are even bigger. If REC or its successor takes root, the city could embed social inclusion into its economic architecture—not just by transferring cash, but by guiding it. It could rewind leaks—money leaving neighborhoods—and instead anchor value in people, not property or extractive tourism.
Yet the path is narrow. It demands that residents adopt something new, that merchants adapt pricing, that public trust remains intact, that conversion rules balance flexibility with commitment.
A Hopeful Turning
In that café, the neon Grama sign glows into the afternoon. A young mother pays her groceries with phone. The cashier, accustomed now, says, “thank you—see you soon.” No fanfare. But in that small, quiet exchange lies a story of possibility.
La Grama is not a perfect currency. It is an experiment. It is at once technical, economic, social, and ethical. But in a world where money flows fastest to capitals, to giants, to the extractive, here is a municipality that says: let’s slow it, root it, bring it home.
If Santa Coloma shows us anything, it’s that money can be more than medium—it can speak of belonging. And maybe, in that whisper, lies a gentle revolution.
Sources:
MDPI
Lavanguardia
Barcelona
