Freedom of Commerce — The Missing Human Right

The flip-side to the coin of a cashless society.

Try using a banknote for payment at the moment and the shopkeeper will look at you like you are handing them a snotty tissue. A tissue may indeed be more hygienic. Scientific research by London Metropolitan University in 2018 found eight types of bacteria on UK £5 and £10 polymer bank notes already in circulation including Listeria and MRSA. Fast-forward to April 2020 in the middle of a global pandemic and cash is a dirty word with “card only” signs commonplace in western retailers.

Even before the COVID-19 crisis, businesses were keen to move to cashless models and give up the inconvenience and burden of accepting cash. Likewise Governments around the world have brought in measures to tighten up on cash usage to prevent money laundering and tax evasion. This was balanced out by consumer advocate groups speaking up for the digital disenfranchised, the financially excluded and the unbanked that still rely heavily on cash. Covid-19 has highlighted one very real negative of cash, its obvious physical form and need for physical proximity to transact. Will cash be a fatality of COVID19?

Before we confine cash to the history books, it is important to note the benefits of cash. Cash protects privacy, cash works without internet connection…