ASSIGNAT. 



ASSIGNAT. 



630 



from circulation. The king and queen had been forced to send their 

 plate to the mint. (Thiera, vol. i. p. 100.) Under these circumstances, 

 it was determined to issue a paper money, based on the security of the 

 unsold lands belonging to the state. The notes thus issued (each of 

 which was for 100 francs, equal to 4/.) were called assiynats, as repre- 

 senting land which might be transferred or assigned to the holder ; and 

 .ill notes which came back in this manner to the government in pay- 

 ment for national lands were to be cancelled. They moreover bore an 

 interest by the day, like English exchequer bills. The object of this 

 measure wag, therefore, to obtain the full value of the confiscated lands 

 of the clergy (which in the actual state of France was impossible), and 

 to supply the deficiency of coin in the circulation (arising from a feeling 

 of insecurity) by a forced issue of inconvertible paper money, which, aa 

 was predicted by M. de Talleyrand, the bishop of Autun, would 

 inevitably be depreciated, and cause misery and ruin to the holders of 

 it. (Thiers, voL i. pp. 233-37, and note xviii. p. 382). The first issue 

 of assignata was to the amount of 400 millions, bearing interest. 

 Shortly afterwards, 800 millions in addition were issued, but without 

 the liability to pay interest (ib. p. 256). The last of these issues was 

 made in September 1790. But, as in the beginning of the following 

 year, the Legislative Assembly sequestered the property of all the 

 emigrants, a numerous and wealthy class, for the benefit of the state 

 (Thiers, vol. ii. p. 51), it was thought that the amount of the national 

 securities having been increased, the issues might be safely increased 

 likewise. Accordingly, in September 1792, although 2500 millions had 

 been already issued, a fresh issue to the amount of 200 millions was 

 ordered by the Convention. (Thiers, vol. iii. p. 151.) Towards the 

 end of this year, the double effects of the general insecurity of property 

 and person, and of the depreciation of assignats caused by their over- 

 issue, was felt in the high price of corn, and the unwillingness of the 

 farmers to supply the markets with provisions. Wholly mistaking the 

 causes of this evil, the violent revolutionary party clamoured for an 

 assize, or fixed maximum of prices, and severe penalties against 

 accapareurt, or engrossers, in order to check the avarice and unjust 

 gains of the rich farmers. The Convention, however, though pressed 

 both by factious violence and open insurrection, refused at this time to 

 regulate prices by law. (Thiers, vol. iii. pp. 311-17.) Prices however, 

 as was natural, still continued to rise ; and although corn and other neces- 

 saries of life were to be had, their value, as represented in the depreciated 

 paper currency, had been nearly doubled. The washerwomen of Paris 

 came to the Convention, to complain that the price of soap, which had 

 formerly been fourteen sous, had now risen to thirty. On the other 

 hand, the wages of labour had not risen in a corresponding degree (see 

 Senior on 'Some Effects of Government Paper,' p. 81); so that the 

 evils arising from the depreciation of the assignats greatly aggravated 

 the poverty and scarcity which would, under any circumstances, have 

 been consequent on the troubles and insecurity of a revolution. The 

 labouring classes accused the rich, the engrossers, and the aristocrats, of 

 the evils which they were suffering, and demanded the imposition of a 

 maximum of prices. Not only however in the Convention did the 

 most violent democrats declare loudly against a maximum, but even in 

 the more popular assembly of the Commune, and the still more demo- 

 cratic club of the Jacobins, wag this measure condemned, frequently 

 amidst the yells and hisses of the galleries. As the Convention refused 

 to give way, Marat, in his newspaper, recommended the pillage of the 

 shops as a means of lowering prices a measure immediately adopted 

 by the mob of Paris, who began by insisting to have goods at certain 

 fixed prices, and ended by taking the goods without paying for them. 

 (Thiers, vol. iv. pp. 38-52.) These and other tumults were however 

 appeased, partly by the interference of the military, and partly by the 

 earnest remonstrances of the authorities. But the evil still went on 

 increasing ; corn diminished in quantity and increased in price ; the 

 national lands, on account of the uncertainty of their title and the 

 instability of the government, were not sold, and thus the number of 

 assignats was not contracted, and they were continually more and 

 more depreciated. 



At length the Convention, thinking that the depreciation might be 

 stopped by laws, made it penal to exchange coin for paper, or to agree 

 to give a higher price if reckoned in paper than if reckoned in coin. 

 Still the over-issue had its natural effects : in June 1793, one franc in 

 silver was worth three francs in paper ; in August it was worth six. 

 Prices rose still higher ; all creditors, annuitants, and mortgagees were 

 defrauded of five-sixths of their legal rights ; and the wages of the 

 labourers were equal in value only to a part of their former earnings. 

 The Convention, unable any longer to resist, in May 1793 passed a 

 decree which compelled all farmers to declare the quantity of corn in 

 their possession, to take it to the markets, and sell it there only, at a 

 price to be fixed by each commune, according to the prices of the first 

 four months of 1793. No one was to buy more corn than would suffice 

 for a month'* consumption, and an infraction of the law was punished 

 by forfeiture of the property bought and a fine of 300 to 1000 francs. 

 The truth of the declaration might be ascertained by domiciliary visits. 

 The commune of Paris also regulated the selling of bread ; no person 

 could receive bread at a baker's shop without a certificate obtained 

 from a revolutionary committee, and the quantity was proportioned to 

 the number of the family. A rope was moreover fixed to the door of 

 each baker's shop, so that, as the purchasers successively came, they 

 might lay hold of it, and be served in their just order. Many people 



in this way waited during the whole night ; but the tumults und dis- 

 turbances were so great that they could often only be appeased by 

 force, nor were they at all diminished by a regulation, that the last 

 comers should be served first. A similar maximum of prices was soon 

 established for all other necessaries, such as meat, wine, vegetables, 

 wood, salt, leather, linen, woollen and cotton goods, &c. ; and any per- 

 son who refused to sell them at the legal price was punished with death. 

 Other measures were added to lower the prices of commodities. Every 

 dealer was compelled to declare the amount of his stock ; and any one 

 who gave np trade, after having been engaged in it for a year, was 

 imprisoned as a suspected person. A new method of regulating prices 

 was likewise devised, by which a fixed sum was assumed for the cost 

 of production, and certain percentages were added for the expense of 

 carriage, and for the profit of wholesale and retail dealers. The exces- 

 sive issue of paper had likewise produced its natural consequence, over 

 speculation, even in times so unfavourable for commercial undertakings. 

 Numerous companies were established, of which the shares soon rose to 

 more than double or treble their original value. These shares being 

 transferable, served in some measure as a paper currency, upon which, 

 the Convention thinking that they contributed still further to discredit 

 the assignats, suppressed all companies whose shares were transferable 

 or negociable. The power of establishing such companies was reserved 

 to the government alone. 



In August 1793 there were in circulation 3776 millions of assiguats; 

 and by a forced loan of 1000 millions, and by the collection of a year's 

 taxes, this amount was subsequently reduced to less than two-thirds : 

 the confidence, moreover, inspired by the recent successes of the 

 republic against its foreign and domestic enemies, tended to increase 

 the value of the securities on which the paper-money ultimately 

 reposed : so that towards the end of 1793 the assignats are stated to 

 have been at par. This effect is attributed by M. Thiers, in his ' His- 

 tory of the French Revolution ' (vol. v. p. 407), to the severe penal laws 

 against the use of coin : nevertheless we suspect that those who made 

 this statement were deceived by false appearances, and that neither at 

 this nor any other time, nor even at their first issue, did the real value 

 of assignats agree with their nominal value. (Thiers, vol. v. pp. 145-62, 

 196-208, 399-413.) However, this restoration of the paper-currency, 

 whether real or apparent, was of very short duration, as the wants of 

 the government led to a fresh issue of assignats ; so that in June 1794 

 the quantity in circulation was 6536 millions. By this time the law of 

 the maximum had become even more oppressive than at first, and it 

 was found necessary to withdraw certain commodities from its opera- 

 tion. Nevertheless, the commission of provisions, which had attempted 

 to perform the part of a commissariat for the whole population of 

 France, began to interfere in a more arbitrary manner with the volun- 

 tary dealings of buyers and sellers, and to regulate not only the 

 quantity of bread, but also the quantity of meat and wood which each 

 person was to receive. (Thiers, vol. vi. pp. 146-51, 307-14.) Other 

 arbitrary measures connected with the supply of the army, as com- 

 pulsory requisitions of food and horses, and the levying of large bodies 

 of men, had contributed to paralyse all industry. Thus not only had 

 all commerce and all manufactures ceased, but even the land was in 

 many places untilled. After the fall of Robespierre, the Thermidorian 

 party (as it was called), which then gained the ascendancy, being guided 

 by less violent principles, and being somewhat more enlightened on 

 matters of political economy than their predecessors, induced the Con- 

 vention to relax a little of its former policy, and succeeded in first 

 excepting all foreign imports from the maximum, and afterwards in 

 abolishing it altogether. The transition to a natural system was, how- 

 ever, attended with great difficulty and danger, as the necessary con- 

 sequence of the change was a sudden and immense rise of the avowed 

 prices ; and trade having been so long prevented from acting for itself, 

 did not at once resume its former habits ; so that Paris, in the middle 

 of winter, was almost in danger of starvation, and wood was scarcely 

 more abundant than bread. As at this time the power of the revo- 

 lutionary government to retain possession of the lands which it had 

 confiscated, and to give a permanently good title to purchasers, was 

 not doubted, it is evident that a fear lest the national lands might not 

 ultimately prove a valuable security did not now tend to discredit the 

 assignats : their depreciation was solely owing to their over-issue, as 

 compared with the wants of the country, and their inconvertibility 

 with the precious metals. The government, however, began now to 

 find that, although it might for some time gain by issuing incon- 

 vertible paper in payment of its own obligations, yet when the depre- 

 ciated paper came to return upon it in the shape of taxes, it obtained 

 in fact a very small portion of the sum nominally paid. Consequently 

 they argued that, as successive issues depreciated the currency in a 

 regular ratio (which, however, is very far from being the case), it 

 would be expedient to require a larger sum to be paid for taxes, 

 according to the amount of paper in circulation. It was therefore 

 decreed that, taking a currency of 2000 millions as the standard, a 

 fourth should be added for every 500 millions added to the circu- 

 lation. Thus, if a sum of 2000 francs was due to the government, 

 it would become 2500 francs when the currency was 2500 millions, 

 3000 francs when it was 3000 millions, and so on. This rule, how- 

 ever, was only applied to the taxes due to the government, and was 

 not extended to payments made by the government, as to public cre- 

 ditors or public functionaries. Nor did it comprehend any private 



