The circulation of complementary means of payment is usually restricted to a locality or region. The attempts to extend the crédito massively across Argentina, as PAR did, did not work out in the long run. The restriction of the créditos to the boundaries of a locality or region achieved better results and in the cases in which the complementary currency mediated a significant proportion of the local exchange, the Trueque became a key institution to reduce poverty and promote local economic development. This chapter discusses in detail the rationale of CCS as a tool to support the local economy.

The role of the Trueque as an instrument to promote local economic development will be studied by delving again into the micro-world of the nodes after 2004. The data on which it is based was collected during the second quarter of 2004. The survey received 386 effective responses, but only the 140 responses of the participants in the 4 CT of the ZO visited during fieldwork will be reported. The ZO was chosen because its explicit emphasis on promoting local economic development. The cases of ZO and of Gente Linda are also reported here because of their exceptional concern for promoting the regional economy. In no way do these two networks constitute average cases, but they are examples of ways in which CCS can have an active role in promoting the local economy.

There has been a ‘rediscovery’ in the last decade that in regions where there are strong institutions, proximity is a crucial factor in improving economic performance. This is the central argument of the Institutional Regionalism perspective according to which economic performance depends not only on positive macroeconomic conditions but also on local institutions that channel and promote selective cooperation between agglomerated actors. It claims that ties of proximity enhance cooperation and learning, integration of local public goods and other assets that have a direct impact on a region's competitive potential. To quote MacLeod & Goodwin, ‘the capacity to territorially embed global processes in place is now conditional upon a plethora of social, cultural and institutional forms and supports’ (original emphasis).