Changing Financial Times

Changing financial times

During a recent woodland walk I chatted with fellow strollers about money in our youth. We recalled the penny bars, the penny worth of sweets. We were familiar with the shilling, the florin and the half crowns. And you were very wealthy if you possessed a ten-shilling or paper pound note.

  We all recalled the post office savings books and how we bought savings stamps in school and how the man from the post office came on a regular basis. When we filled a book, we went into the post office to lodge the money in our post office savings book. We were brainwashed into saving to make sure we had enough money to buy things when we grew older. I am afraid the plan didn’t quite work out for me. I had to get loans, overdrafts and mortgages to survive.

  When we paid for goods in a shop the shopkeeper generally threw the money into a box under the counter and handed us our change. Somehow part of this money found its way into employee’s pockets, so a more secure system was needed.

  In 1879 in America, the Ritty Brothers invented Rittys Incorruptible Cashier’. This new cash machine aimed to stop staff from stealing money and so the cash register was the new cashier. I recall seeing these in bigger shops in Tralee. They were lovely looking ornate machines. Owners and staff tapped in the cost of each item bought and then when the total was totted up a bell rang, and the drawer opened. The modern cash register is a totally different machine with drawers sealed and when money is put in the machine it dispenses exact change and a receipt while the drawer stays locked.

  There was also another ingenious system used in the bigger stores. The cash office was in a raised position over the shop floor and the cashier or two, depending on the size of the shop worked there. They were linked to the shop assistants by cables. When the shop assistant made a sale, they put the money and price into a poppet, and it zipped along the wire to the central cashier’s office. She returned the poppet with the receipt and change.

This was a huge improvement. I remember being down in Kinsale some years ago and saw that the poppets were still in use in one store. The poppet was a small cylindrical container which could be unscrewed in the middle. These machines were first used in Massachusetts in 1882 by the Lamson Cash Carrier Company.

Nowadays suction pockets are a key component of cash transfer systems in retail environments, where it's important to safely and quickly move cash from tills to a central cash office or cashier station without exposing staff or cash to theft or handling errors. These are part of a pneumatic tube system, which uses air pressure to move the suction pocket — through a network of tubes installed throughout stores.

Today as more systems are automated, cash and card transactions are 50% each with cash transactions slipping below 50% so far this year.

In pension payments 70%of pensioners now get their pensions paid by electronic transfer while 30% go to the post office to collect them in cash.

Likewise with social welfare 70% of people get their payments lodged electronically into their bank accounts with the remainder calling to the post office to collect their benefits.

We use swipe cards, Revolut and our phones to pay for goods, we have online banking, and we have less ready cash in our pockets.

Despite all these modern payment methods, one thing is constant. Prices keep rising at an inexorable rate which makes managing family and individual budgets difficult.

When we shop, we have video surveillance peeping over our shoulders watching our every move while various algorithms track our spending habits and patterns. We’re being watched and influenced.

When we pay for goods, we are paying huge direct tax on everyday item. In my early years VAT on goods was never heard of in Ireland. In rural Ireland there was still a form of barter in existence.

 We joined the EEC in 1973 with one of the conditions being that we had to introduce VAT on all goods with the standard rate being 16.37% This replaced the previous turnover tax and wholesale tax. Our current VAT rates (as of October 2025): standard rate: 23% with reduced rates of13.5% and 9%.

This was a major change for Ireland and is now a major source of Annual Government revenue

Another factor affecting the price of groceries and the general cost of living is commercial rates. When I was growing up, I remember the water rates and rates on houses. My granduncle was a rate collector, and he went around to cattle and sheep fairs collecting rates. They were part of our lives and had to be paid. Then in 1977 Martin O Donoghue and Jack Lynch abolished rates as an election gimmick.

Nowadays we have rates on commercial premises while the rest of us pay a property tax. There is no escaping this as it is collected by Revenue.

We gained our freedom as an independent nation in 1923 which gave our Revenue Commissioners freedom to collect taxes for Ireland. Prior to this we paid some taxes to the British but now we  have our own Revenue collected by Revenue. The Irish resisted taxes and they were hiding money under beds, up in lofts or old armchairs and in Ansbacher accounts. They were not giving anything to revenue. Now we have revenue online and big brother is watching over us at every move. The cash box under the counter is gone but cash nixer jobs and the black economy survive to a lesser extent.

Meanwhile the cost of living and groceries is soaring with the price of meat and fish and many household staples gone through the roof.

Our youthful memories of the penny bars and boiled sweets are long gone.