Destruction of the assignat printing presses and plates (1796)
Fiat Money Inflation in France
mises.org
Page 50:
Interesting is it to note in the midst of all this the steady
action of another simple law in ñnance. Prisons, guillotines,
enactments inflicting twenty years' imprisonment in chains
upon persons twice convicted of buying or selling paper
money at less than its nominal value, and death upon investors
in foreign securities, were powerless. The National
Convention, fighting a world in arms and with an armed
revolt on its own soil, showed titanic power, but in its struggle
to circumvent one simple law of nature its weakness
was pitiable. The louis d'or stood in the market as a monitor,
noting each day, with unerring fidelity, the decline in
value of the assignat; a monitor not to be bribed, not to be
scared. As well might the National Convention try to bribe
or scare away the polarity of the mariner's compass. On
August 1, 1795, this gold louis of 25 francs was worth in
paper, 920 francs; on September 1st, 1,200 francs; on November
1st, 2,600 francs; on December 1st, 3,050 francs.
In February, 1796, it was worth 7,200 francs or one franc
in gold was worth 288 francs in paper. Prices of all commodities
went up nearly in proportion.
Pages 52-53:
This system in finance was accompanied by a system in
politics no less startling, and each system tended to aggravate
the other. The wild radicals, having sent to the guillotine
first all the Royalists and next all the leading Republicans
they could entrap, the various factions began sending
each other to the same destination:—Hébertists, Dantonists,
with various other factions and groups, and, finally, the
Robespierrists, followed each other in rapid succession.
After these declaimers and phrase-mongers had thus disappeared
there came to power, in October, 1795, a new government,
—mainly a survival of the more scoundrelly,—
the Directory. It found the country utterly impoverished
and its only resource at first was to print more paper and
to issue even while wet from the press. These new issues
were made at last by the two great committees, with or
without warrant of law, and in greater sums than ever.
Complaints were made that the army of engravers and
printers at the mint could not meet the demand for assignats—
that they could produce only from sixty to
seventy millions per day and that the government was
spending daily from eighty to ninety millions. Four thousand
millions of francs were issued during one month, a
little later three thousand millions, a little later four thousand
millions, until there had been put forth over thirtyfive
thousand millions. The purchasing power of this paper
having now become almost nothing, it was decreed, on the
22nd of December, 1795, that the whole amount issued
should be limited to forty thousand millions, including all
that had previously been put forth and that when this had
been done the copper plates should be broken. Even in spite
of this, additional issues were made amounting to about ten
thousand millions. But on the 18th of February, 1796, at
nine o'clock in the morning, in the presence of a great
crowd, the machinery, plates and paper for printing assignats
were brought to the Place Vendome and there,
on the spot where the Napoleon Column now stands, these
were solemnly broken and burned.
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