#assignats

[deputy-vania]

Assignats are the bane of every student of the French revolution without an economics background. 

Lucy Moore

[rbzpr]

The assignats during the French Revolution (François Hincker)

The first date of the revolutionary paper money in history is 19 September 1789, when the deputy Gouy d'Arsy proposed the issuing of national mandates for a total sum of 400 million livres, equal to the anticipated yield of the patriotic tax. This was not realised. But on 20 November, Pinteville-Cernon for the first time linked the issuing of assignats (the word appeared at that time) to the drafting of biens nationaux, which were placed at the disposal of the nation  by the vote of 2 November.

Following the report of Lecoulteux de Canteleu, the decrees of 19 and 21 December created a Caisse de l'Extraordinaire, whose resources stemmed from the selling of the biens nationaux, from the contribution patriotique and from other extraordinary revenues. Goods bearing interest at 5% were assigned to this fund, up to the value of the biens nationaux and admitted preferably for the purchase of said goods. In principle, the assignats had to be destroyed as soon as they would return to the fund upon each sale of biens nationaux. The same decrees ordered the issuing of 400,000 notes of 1,000 livres, the first of a long series.

On 17 April 1790, the interest of the assignats that had already been issued was lowered to 3%, and it was decided that those who had not yet been printed would be as printed notes of 300 and 200 livres.

On 28 September 1790, the decisive steps towards the transformation of the assignats into veritable paper money were taken, in good conscience. Necker, hostile to every new issuing, had resigned on 3 September. Most of the commercial towns and the majority of the conseils généraux expressed the ancestral repugnance of the French bourgeoisie towards paper money. On the other hand, almost all of the Parisian sections, the « advanced » sections and Mirabeau campaigned for extending the functions of the assignat to the reimbursement of public debt. With a narrow majority, the Constituent Assembly established the forced rate of the assignat and abolished the interest that it bore. on 8 October, it authorised the issuing of notes of 50 to 100 livres.

At the same time, it authorised the issuing of 800 millions of new assignats, while taking precautionary measures against an inflation, whose threat it was aware of ; it always required a decree in order to authorise a new issue, and the circulation was never allowed to surpass a billion.

From then on, it is difficult to follow the evolution of the quantity of the assignats in circulation at a given moment. In fact, one has to distinguish the decrees ordering the fixing of the issuing limits from the real issuing, which staggered. One has to deduce the  revenues of the consecutive assignats in the purchase of biens nationaux. As the best historian of the question, S. E. Harris, has shown, one also has to consider the words that were used in the decrees : mettre en circulation is not equivalent to demeurer en circulation ...

One can estimate that, under the Constituent Assembly, 1,550 million had been issued and 250 withdrawn from circulation, 900 issued under the Legislative and 200 withdrawn, 3,600 million were issued under the Convention until Thermidor Year II.

When the Republic was proclaimed, the total real circulation was at least 2,000 billions, which did not exceed the value of the biens nationaux that were left for sale, and which only represented 2/3 of the value of the metallic cash circulating in 1789. At the time of the turning point of Thermidor, the value of the banknotes in circulation was still between 5 and 6 billion. If one takes technical considerations into account, the issue had not been excessive, compared to posterior periods of war. But naturally, economic (the decline of production and of exchanges in the face of this growth of the means of payment), psychological (the general repugnance towards paper money, and particularly the repugnance of the possessors of immobile goods or other types) and political considerations explain a depreciation which, technically, nothing can justify.

Although tables of depreciation of the assignat had been set up by the services of the Treasury, it is not easy to measure it clearly. Is it necessary to take the value of the assignat in relation to gold and money (as the Treasury did), in relation to foreign currencies, or to prices (but is this not entering a vicious circle?). Harris prefers to rely on the tables of depreciation that were set up by the departmental authorities, which take into account both the valeurs-métal of the assignat and its value measured by the price of a small number of constant goods.

One therefore arrived at the following average depreciation: 14% (the real value of an assignat of 100 livres being ~ 86 livres) in September 1791, 28% in May 1792, 25% in December 1792, 61% in August 1793, 53% in May 1794 and 59% in July 1794.

This figures highlight the incontestable success of the interventionist policies of the second half of 1792 (in spite of the war) and of the revolutionary government.

In contrast, the abandonment of planned economy, which was rapidly implemented after Thermidor, opened the doors to a galloping inflation (which is not to say that this abandonment was the cause). 2 billion were in circulation in May 1795, 20 in November, nearly 35 in February 1796. The depreciation had been even stronger, which is normal : in May 1795, the banknote of 100 livres was only worth 2 livres, and in February 1796 ... 30 centimes. On 30 Pluviôse Year IV (19 February 1796), the printing plates of the assignats were burned on the Place Vendôme.

In light of the experiences of the 20th century (wars, Germany in 1923, the aftermath of World War II in all European countries) and of the reinterpretation of the Law period (although the memory of the latter had played a role under the Revolution) ; also in light of the economic results that had been obtained until 1792, one cannot judge the experience of the assignats as overall disastrous : until early 1793, a moderate inflation allowed at once the drafting of biens nationaux, an incentive to mercantile production and a reduction of public debt. As for France in Year II, would she have been able to sustain the war without paper money while metallic cash vanished or was hidden?

Source: Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française (Albert Soboul)

[montagnarde1793]

Je sais bien que ça ce n’est qu’un article de magazine, et non de revue scientifique, mais il est incroyablement frustrant quand un article se conclut avant d’avoir vraiment fait d’analyse. Ce n’est qu’une introduction et une conclusion sans aucune substance. On peut sûrement faire mieux que ça !

[mebwalker]

The Church of France during the French Revolution

The Church of France during the French Revolution

Portrait présumé d’Aimé du Boisguy, peinture de Jean-Baptiste Isabey, 1800.

The Church of France during and after the French Revolution Chouannerie War in the Vendée (1793-1796)  

The above portrait is presumed to be that of Aimé Casimir Marie Picquet, chevalier du Boisguy, or Bois-Guy. Aimé Picquet du Boisguy (15 March 1776, Fougères, Ille-et-Vilaine - 25 October 1839, Paris) was a Chouan (liter…

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[mebwalkerlove]

The Church of France during the French Revolution

The Church of France during the French Revolution

Portrait présumé d’Aimé du Boisguy, peinture de Jean-Baptiste Isabey, 1800.

The Church of France during and after the French Revolution Chouannerie War in the Vendée (1793-1796)  

The above portrait is presumed to be that of Aimé Casimir Marie Picquet, chevalier du Boisguy, or Bois-Guy. Aimé Picquet du Boisguy (15 March 1776, Fougères, Ille-et-Vilaine - 25 October 1839, Paris) was a Chouan (liter…

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[bunniesandbeheadings]

I purchased what was allegedly an authentic assignat. I'm not quite certain if it really is authentic, but i liked the pretty leather binding and it wasn't too expensive so I bought it. 

I obviously disapprove of its summary of Robespierre though...