Assignats.

Assignats. After appropriating to national purposes the land belonging to the church, the French National Assembly, instead of bringing it into the market at a time of insecurity, when its value was depreciated, issued bonds on the security of it, which were called assignats, as representing land assigned to the holder. This paper-money consisted chiefly of notes for 100 francs (£4) each, though many of them were for lower sums; and the first issue, in 1790, amounted to 400 million francs. The system relieved the government; 'the assignats saved the revolution' for the time being. The facility of this plan of providing government income led to its being repeatedly had recourse to, as the property of wealthy émigrés was confiscated, till the amount rose to the enormous sum of 45,578 million francs, besides great numbers of forged notes—for the assignats were easily counterfeited. The value of the assignats naturally soon began to decline, and confidence once gone, the declension became fearful. In June 1793, one franc in silver was worth three francs in paper; in August it was worth six. The state took the most extreme measures to compel the acceptance of these notes at their full nominal value. The effects of these were to cause the assignats to flow back into the public treasury, to raise the prices of all commodities, and to make every one averse to have any dealings with the state. All business became disorganised. At last the value of assignats sank almost to nil. Millions had suffered incalculable loss, and only a few who had bought public lands with the assignats that cost them little or nothing, had enriched themselves at the expense of the community. In March 1796, a louis d'or (24 francs) bought 7200 francs in assignats. After this, they were withdrawn from the currency, and redeemed at a thirtieth of their nominal value, by 'territorial mandates,' a new kind of paper-money, which enabled the holder at once to take possession of public lands at the estimated value, while assignats could only be offered at a sale. The mandats also soon fell to a seventieth of their nominal value, and were returned to government in payment of taxes or of land. The disastrous system of compulsory paper-credit came to an end early in 1797.