“Cash is king, credit is a slave,” George N. McLean wrote in his classic 1890 book How to do Business. More than a century later, it’s still good advice – one that active pro-cash movements in many other countries are recognizing. So why does Ottawa seem determined to put its own banknotes out of commission? In the name of fighting international money-launderers, the Mark Carney government is proposing to outlaw all larger cash transactions and interfere with other key aspects of Canada’s cash economy. Through interviews with experts in business, social policy and politics, Peter Shawn Taylor examines the varied benefits cash provides and asks who stands to gain from a truly cashless society.