while I have many reservations about fiat currency, as, dare I point it out, even China has a fiat currency today (:>), this sounds like a Procrustean bed to me:
"one must interpret it in light of a correct economic theory. The data of economic history can otherwise be used to defend just about ANY position."
I would rather PT provided an analysis of the facts per his "theory"
re: "the revolutionaries were 'puzzled' why their attempt to create 'economic stimulus' by printing money only seemed to work for ever shorter periods of time"
among other things, the Brits were counterfeiting the Assignats as fast as they could run the presses
see: "The Money And The Finances Of The French Revolution Of 1789: Assignats And Mandats, A True History," Stephen D. Dillaye, pp. 29-33, Appendix
books.google.com
"Seventeen Manufacturing Establishments -were in full operation in London, with a force of four hundred men devoted to the production of false and forged Assignats.1 The success and the extent of the labor may be judged by-the quantity and value they represented. In the month of May, 1795, it was found that there were in circulation from 12,000,000,000, to 15,000,000,000 francs of forged Assignats, which were so exact in form, appearance, texture, and design, as to defy detection, except by the most minute examination and exact knowledge of the secret signs by which the initiated were taught to distinguish them.
The Assignats in circulation at this time, May, 1795, issued by the Revolutionary government, were 7,860,000,000 francs, and not, as Mr. White has stated, 45,000,000,000.2 The value of the lands dedicated by the Revolutionary authorities as the basis for their redemption, as established by the assessment tables of 1790, was 15,000,000,000, or nearly two dollars for one of the issue, though the issue at one time had reached the sum of 11,855,831,625 francs. It is therefore incontestable that the security was ample in value, if the title to the lands had been unquestioned, to have covered the entire issue, provided the Revolutionary authorities had continued in power.
With these facts, showing how the Assignats came to be issued, the circumstances under which they were put in circulation, and the security on which they were based—with the character and kind of title the Revolutionary government had to the lands devoted to their redemption, together with a review of the political condition of France at the period of the overthrow of Eobespierre and the rise of the party known as Thermidorians—I come now to the culmination of the causes which united and set themselves in motion to depreciate and utterly annihilate the Assignat, as a medium of exchange or as a representative of value.
The Culminating Causes Of The Overthrow Of The Assignat were—
First: The ease and extent of their forgery.
I have shown that there were about two dollars of forged Assignats in circulation to one of the genuine; that the forged were of such exact similitude to the original that they could only be distinguished by an expert, who had been made acquainted with the secret by which they could be designated. The extent of the circulation of forged Assignats may easily be explained. The French princes, nobility and clergy, proscribed by the Revolution, were everywhere active in their circulation. The Catholic religion was the dominant religion of France, and there was not a parish in the whole extent of its territory that did not feel the outrage committed on the Church by the confiscation of its lands, and there was hardly a Catholic in France who was not made the instrument, either directly or indirectly, to aid in the circulation of forged Assignats. Those who knew that they were circulating the forged Assignats, varnished the crime by the fact that the lands upon which they were based were their lands which had been taken from them by the public robber, who, saber in hand and with pistol at the bead, had commanded obedience or death. They claimed the right, like any other proprietor whose property had been stolen, to reclaim it and appropriate it whenever and in whatever form they could find it. They were fighting to regain their homes, their altars, their country; and they assumed that by the laws of war, which had subjugated their property and their rights, they might resort to any means to weaken their enemies and strengthen themselves. Under this theory, the business of forging and circulating Assignats to the extent I have described was tarried on under Count d' Artois (brother of Louis XVI. and afterwards Charles tbe Tenth). The details of the work were supervised by Count Puisaye, while the venerable Bishop Dol selected the instruments for their general circulation, and with M. de Saint Morys, gave directions to a hoard of ecclesiastics, yet recognized as French citizens, to accelerate their rapid circulation in France. Thus was forgery organized under English sanction, and reduced to a governmental system, upon a scale without limit and with a success without a parallel, to overthrow the value of the Assignat, and to take away the resources of the Revolution.
This organized forgery of Assignats commenced from the third issue of 800,000,000 francs voted by the National Assembly in June, 1790. The work increased in almost an exact ratio with the increase of the emigrant and allied enemies of the revolution. But tbe fact that false Assignats were being issued, or that they were in circulation, was denied and vehemently scouted at by the Revolutionary leaders, as well as by the emigrant authorities and clergy. The fact was daily heralded at the stock board, but it was regarded as a stock jobbing lie on the one hand, and as a slander on the other. It was too soon to have the fact known for the interest of the emigrant nobility and clergy, and it would ruin the credit of the Assignat if it were true and the public believed it. So public opinion killed the fact as a publie lie."
1 In the case of Strongi'th'arm vs. Lukyn. Lord Kenyon, sitting in the Court of the King's Bench, in London, decided' that the Plaintiff was entitled to recover the amount of a note which had been given in payment for the engraving of copper plates from which French Assignats were to lie forged. Among th i grounds for this decision were that "It was not in evidence that the Plaintiff was a parly to any fraud, or that it was ever communicated to him that the Assignats were to be used for any improper purpose; on the contrary, he supposed that they were circulated by the higher powers o/this country, and therefore did not question the propriety or legality of the measure." Accordingly the jury found a verdict lor the plaintiff. See Cobbett's Paper against Gold, Letter XXIV., May 17,1811. In the Puisavb Papers, Vol. CI.. British Museum, is a letter relative to the fabrication of false Assignats, in which the daughter of Saint Morys pravs the Marquis Duinesnil to obtain an order from M. Windham one of the Ministry, for 40 pounds of ink, to be used In the printing. This letter, in connexion with numerous faets set forth in the Pulsaye Papers, shows that the government not only recognized the faet, hut aided in the produetion of false Assignats. See also Louis Blanc, llistoire de la involution, Vol. xii., 110.
2 See Appendix, p. 68.:
APPENDIX.
Mr White gives the circulation of Assignats at 45,000,000,000 of francs, without giving figures or facts to show how he reaches the sum. I have given the issue up to the middle of May, 1795, showing
First issue, Dec, 1789, 400,000,000 francs.
Second " June, 1790, 400,000,000 francs.
Third " Sept., 1790, 800,000,000 francs.
These issues were increased from time to time to meet expenses of government till May, 1795, when the issue had reached the sum of 11,855,831,623 francs, of which sum 3,715,000,000 francs had been redeemed and cancelled, leaving in circulation about 8,140,000,000 francs.
August, 1793. The issue had been 4,616,000,000 francs, of which 840,000,000 francs had been redeemed, leaving then in circulation 3,776,000,000.1
The 15th of May, 1795, terminated the legal and legitimate issue of Assignats. The fall of Robespierre terminated their credit. At this time they were not worth in the market over six cents on the dollar.
To show that there could have been no such issue as Mr. White states, we have but to look at the facts. First. That May 15th, 1795, the entire outstanding issue of Assignats was but 8,140,000,000 francs. Second. The expenses and expenditures of the government per month and year, and Third. The fact that the Assignat was so totally discredited in January, 1796, that the government stopped their issue, and issued Mandats in their place, and in February, 1796 destroyed all the plates from which they were printed.2
1 Louis Blanc, History of the French Revolution. Vol. 12, p. 111.
Alison, History of Europe. Vol. 1, p. 340 and note ; p. 378 and note.
Report of Bourdon (de 1'oise). Moniteur. 3d year, No. 231.
Thiers, French Revolution. Eng. Ed., p 322.
2 Louis Blanc, History French Revolution. Vol. 12, p. 96.
Alison, History of Europe. Vol. 1, 240. |
